The recent announcements by the Department for Education (DfE) and Ofsted about the new childminder ‘flexibilities’ that come into force on 1 November have taken lots of childminders by surprise. While we knew the previous government were considering these changes, the current government have only recently confirmed they are putting them in place.
The aim, as part of the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act (October 2023), is to introduce new flexibilities for childminders to enable them to ‘expand and grow their business if they wish to’.
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.
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