Home Childcarers

A home childcarer is a person aged 18 or over who cares for the children (aged from birth to 17 years) in their own home; or for children of no more than two families, wholly or mainly at the home of one or both families at any one time, such as a nanny share. If a person cares for the children of three or more families at any one time, the law says they are no longer a home childcarer but a childminder.

Home childcarers do not have to register with Ofsted but may choose to register on the voluntary part of the Childcare Register. The most common reasons for doing so are to give reassurance to parents who employ nannies; and to enable eligible parents to claim the childcare element of working families tax credits.

Home childcarers on the Childcare Register must meet the requirements for registration set out in the Ofsted leaflet Requirements for the Childcare Register: childminders and home childcarers.  

The registration process is set out in the Guide to registration on the Childcare Register.

Inspection of those on the Childcare Register

Ofsted inspect a random selection of all those on the Childcare Register to see if they comply with the requirements for registration. Inspections are announced because we need to seek permission from the occupier of the premises where the home childcarer works to enter the premises and inspect the childcare.

Ofsted inspect all home childcarers on the Childcare Register where they receive a complaint that relates to the requirements of registration or any conditions Ofsted may have imposed on a registration.

How do I get a copy of the report?

Ofsted do not produce a report for home childcarers on the Childcare Register. Following any inspection the home childcarer will receive either a letter confirming that they are meeting the requirements for registration or a letter detailing what must be done in order to remain registered.

Home childcarers must make information about the registration system available to parents. If a home childcarer has received an inspection they will have been given an inspection outcome letter. You can find inspection letters on the Ofsted website, although they do not publish home childcarers’ names and addresses. You can also find out the names and addresses of home childcarers with vacancies and the link to their inspection letter if they have been inspected from DISC Devon’s family information service www.devon.gov.uk/disc 0845 155 1013