{"id":19842,"date":"2026-05-21T10:21:50","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T09:21:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/eycs\/?p=19842"},"modified":"2026-05-21T10:21:50","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T09:21:50","slug":"ofsted-early-years-registering-a-childminder-assistant-what-you-need-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/eycs\/ofsted-early-years-registering-a-childminder-assistant-what-you-need-to-know\/","title":{"rendered":"Ofsted: early years – registering a childminder assistant: what you need to know"},"content":{"rendered":"

Childminders and\u00a0childminder\u00a0assistants play a vital role in childcare. At the\u00a0end of 2025\u00a0<\/a>there\u00a0were nearly 25,000 childminders\u00a0in England, with the vast majority\u00a0providing education and care for early years children.\u00a0Of these, 41% have an assistant listed on their registration \u2013 including the current longest-serving childminder, who has been\u00a0in the role\u00a0since the 1970s!<\/p>\n

As a childminder,\u00a0employing\u00a0an assistant\u00a0can enable you\u00a0to expand your provision, take on more children, and help\u00a0create\u00a0more government-funded\u00a0early years\u00a0places for children.\u00a0In this blog, we explain the process\u00a0of registering a childminder assistant.<\/p>\n

Between\u00a0April 2024\u00a0and\u00a0March 2025, we made\u00a01,533\u00a0assistants suitable\u00a0\u2013 which means they were cleared to start work as a childminder assistant within the\u00a0staff-to-child ratios.<\/a><\/p>\n

Assistants must be\u00a0deemed\u00a0suitable by Ofsted before being counted in ratios or being left in sole care of children.\u00a0Once approved, assistants can support childminders by caring for children, for example while the childminder does school pick-ups and drop offs or attends appointments. Childminders and assistants have distinct roles\u00a0and childminders\u00a0are\u00a0responsible for\u00a0the work of assistants.<\/p>\n

We understand that assistants play a vital role in childcare and give childminders much-needed flexibility.\u00a0We want to ensure that, when you do apply\u00a0to register a childminder assistant, we are able to\u00a0review and\u00a0process your application\u00a0quickly\u00a0and fairly.<\/p>\n

How registering a childminder assistant works<\/h2>\n

As a childminder you\u00a0must\u00a0let us know you\u00a0want to work with an assistant.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

The\u00a0Early Years Foundation Stage\u00a0(EYFS)<\/a>\u00a0states:<\/p>\n

All childminders must, as soon as reasonably\u00a0practicable\u00a0but in any event within 14 days of the change, notify either Ofsted or their childminder agency\u00a0of\u00a0any\u00a0change to the persons aged 16 years or older living or working on any domestic premises from which childminding is provided.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You\u2019ll\u00a0be asked questions on the application form\u00a0about your new assistant. Once\u00a0you\u2019ve\u00a0completed your\u00a0section and supplied contact details,\u00a0we\u2019ll\u00a0email the person\u00a0with\u00a0an\u00a0online application\u00a0form and ask them to provide further information.\u00a0With this information we can\u00a0do\u00a0a range of checks and determine if the person is suitable to care for\u00a0or be in regular contact with children.<\/p>\n

The checks we carry out<\/h2>\n

Everyone applying to be a childminder assistant needs to have an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) certificate with children\u2019s barred list check for the child workforce (this must also be home-based if the assistant lives on the childcare premises).<\/p>\n

We will review\u00a0information we receive from\u00a0the\u00a0children\u2019s services department in each local authority where the applicant has lived in the previous 5 years.\u00a0The information we receive\u00a0determines\u00a0whether we carry out other checks.<\/p>\n

For example,\u00a0if the assistant has lived abroad in the past 5 years,\u00a0we may need to\u00a0see\u00a0a certificate of good conduct\u00a0and\u00a0an\u00a0overseas criminal records check<\/a>\u00a0from\u00a0each\u00a0country\u00a0they lived in during that period.<\/p>\n

If a person has lived within several local authorities in the past 5 years we will need to contact each local authority for information.\u00a0This understandably takes a little more time.<\/p>\n

We may also request that assistants complete a health declaration form if the information we receive suggests that a health\u00a0condition\u00a0may impact their suitability to\u00a0care for children.<\/p>\n

How\u00a0long\u00a0it takes<\/h2>\n

Where we determine that someone is suitable to become a childminder assistant, it takes on average 34 working days. This is down from 37 working days in 2023, and we\u2019re still finding ways to make the process better and faster. Of course this is an average, and some applications will be completed more quickly while others require additional time. This is largely dependent on the number of checks we are required to carry out.<\/p>\n

Sometimes we\u00a0need more information\u00a0to help us reach a decision\u00a0on suitability. This may include\u00a0speaking with the childminder and\/or assistant.\u00a0As a result, this part of the process can take a little longer.<\/p>\n

The length of time it takes to review an application does not necessarily mean we\u00a0need to explore information in more detail or that we\u00a0are concerned. It could be because we are\u00a0waiting\u00a0for\u00a0information from other agencies.<\/p>\n

In some cases,\u00a0we do\u00a0determine\u00a0that a person is not suitable\u00a0to be a childminder assistant. This happens\u00a0rarely,\u00a0and\u00a0is\u00a0always\u00a0with the aim of\u00a0keeping children safe.<\/p>\n

Find out more<\/h2>\n

In November 2024, the Department for Education introduced changes<\/a> to provide childminders and childcare providers with additional flexibilities to help more people work together, including on non-domestic premises. You can read our blog post<\/a> about it.<\/p>\n

If you want to work with more than 4\u00a0other people\u00a0(5 in total)\u00a0who are providing or\u00a0assisting\u00a0with childcare\u00a0in someone\u2019s home, you must register as\u00a0a \u2018childcare on domestic premises\u2019 provider. You can read more about this\u00a0in\u00a0our\u00a0guidance<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Assistants play a key role working alongside childminders to ensure all children in their care get the best start in life.\u00a0Ofsted is committed to ensuring that everyone working with children is suitable, and we will continue to work with other agencies to make these decisions as safely and swiftly as possible.<\/p>\n

Read the full blog: Registering a childminder assistant: what you need to know \u2013 Ofsted: early years<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a childminder, employing an assistant can enable you to expand your provision, take on more children, and help create more government-funded early years places for children. In this blog, we explain the process of registering a childminder assistant. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":649,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-updates"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-28 23:41:51","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/eycs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/eycs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/eycs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/eycs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/649"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/eycs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19842"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/eycs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19844,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/eycs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19842\/revisions\/19844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/eycs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/eycs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/eycs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}