Asking for copy of birth certificate?

[LinaDee]

My daughter goes to a private nursery 3 days a week. She is 2 and has been in the nursery since she was 8 months.
Last week we got an email saying that their records show that they do not hold a copy of her birth certificate and we should provide them with one at our earliest convenience.
This was not something we were ever asked for when applying for her place.

Anyone know why we might be asked for this?

This is standard practice.
The nursery has a legal obligation under the statutory requirements of the EYFS to have a record of who has parental responsibility for each child
While there is usually a box for this on the enrolment go the easiest and most accurate way of confining this is to see the long birth certificate which has both parents names on.
The nursery is probably going through all records yp ensure they comply with the law.
They will also ask for a utility bill as they need the child's address too.

Thanks insancerre!

They might also need it to verify who is entitled to 2/3 yr old funding. Making sure people aren't claiming early.

it's identification for the child. most children will claim funding at some point and you need proof of their date of birth/age. standard procedure. they probably just checked through and noticed they had not checked yours on induction.

I don't know if it applies to nurseries too but Private schools also have to verify students immigration status & having a copy if a birth certificate is one of the ways they can do this.

Verification of their date of birth for age. We're a nursery attached to the school and we have to see a birth certificate and it has helped spot errors on the admissions form (a child was down as a year younger than they actually were!).