New rules which will make it easier for early years providers and childminders to open nurseries in a wider range of settings could ‘dilute or remove the uniqueness’ operators provide, it has been warned.

The Government recently announced that from 1 November Ofsted will accept applications for a new category of childcare provider as part of a series of changes the Department for Education has introduced to give the early years and childcare sector more flexibility.

Childcare providers now have the option to register as childminders without domestic premises, meaning they can work from somewhere other than a home, such as a village hall.

Previously, childminders had to register on domestic premises and spend at least 50% of their time working from a home address.

The Government has now removed this limit, but those registered to provide care at someone’s home will still have to spend some of their time on domestic premises.

It will be up to individual providers to decide how best to split this between settings.

Increased flexibility

The total number of people who can work together under a childminder’s registration has also increased from three to four, allowing providers more flexibility to work with others, such as co-childminders and childminding assistants.

Providers already registered as childcare on domestic premises can continue to operate with a minimum of four people working together, but from 1 November 2024 new applications for this type of provision will need a minimum of five people.

Those already operating who do not want to make any changes will be unaffected by the announcement.

But Tina Maltman, executive director of Childminding UK, said of the changes: “The glory of childminding has always been that it is home-based childcare and as such, the closest form of care a little one will receive outside their own home.

“There are concerns among childminders and organisations that the new flexibilities are diluting or removing that uniqueness.”

The increase in the number of adults who can work together from three to four, she warned, would ‘need a substantial amount of room and won’t be an option for many childminders’.

“We feel this change is more aimed at those who want to work from premises other than domestic premises for all, or most, of the time,” she added.

Causing confusion

“And creating a new category of childminder – ‘childminder without domestic premises’, who would work entirely from non-domestic premises, won’t offer the comfort or snuggling opportunities that current childminding does.”

She concludes: “We know many potential childminders have restrictions on their homes preventing them from childminding, but financially this new category of registration is unlikely to be a viable alternative for individual childminders as overheads are significantly different.

“Where four childminders work together in non-domestic premises, it will appear more like a pre-school or small day nursery and not like a childminding setting, which could be confusing for parents.

“If this flexibility is aimed at small pre-schools who have difficulties recruiting qualified staff to change their registration to childminding, this could cause sustainability issues due to the lower childminding adult:child ratios.

“While we totally welcome measures to increase the number of childminders, and childcare places, there appears to be universal objection for including childminding in the name of this new category.”