Ka Lai Brightley-Hodges, Head of Coram PACEY

Part two: The barriers to registering an assistant are now restricting business growth and disrupting continuity

Recently, in part one of this blog I spoke about the delays to registering as a childminder with Ofsted and the impact the process, communication and the ‘annual summer backlog’ was having on passionate and enthusiastic candidates coming into the profession.  

Now, I am turning my attention to childminding assistants. This blog will focus on the registration process they and the childminders who employ them have to go through, concerns around recent changes to this process and the impact on those looking to grow their childminding business or simply ensure business continuity, and in turn, continuity of care for children. 

Impact of childminding assistant registration delays 

Historically, the childminding assistant registration process has not escaped the curse of the ‘annual summer backlog’. Just last year (2025), we were contacted by childminders who were doing their part to support the last phase of the expansion of the entitlement scheme, by taking on childminding assistants and offering more places. However, we heard from many who had started registering their assistants in May and still by September had not heard back from Ofsted or received confirmation. With the EYFS requirements at this time, they had to make a hard decision: 

• Not take on the assistant and let their families down, or 
• Employ the assistant in the setting, so long as they did not count in ratios and were supervised whilst waiting for the suitability checks to be completed.

Many chose to wait for the DBS check, employ the assistant who did not count in ratios but would be supervised whilst they waited for the suitability letter. 

“The delay meant that I started one contract a week late, another family found a place elsewhere. I had to make a delayed adjustment for funding to the local authority – so I didn’t get paid for the child I took on until two months later, which meant paying out of my own wage to the assistant. Causing financial burden, claiming less because one contract didn’t go through. Wasn’t worth it in the end, the assistant decided not to carry on after the term ended because of delays and less wage than previous job.” 

Ofsted attributed this to the high volume of registration applications over the summer, getting ready for the start of the term. They also produced a blog explaining the process of registering a childminding assistant to give context. Whilst not every delay is within their control, for this backlog issue, I repeat my call to action from part one: seasonal demand should be planned for in advance by Ofsted and the Department for Education (DfE) should provide the funding to address the backlog. 

I also understand the frustration for childminders dealing with Ofsted’s lack of communication throughout this process and how this is significantly impacting their experience and wellbeing. We hear the same from those registering as a childminder themselves.  

“I have been trying to add a new assistant to my registration since May and I still haven’t had a suitability letter from Ofsted. I chased via the Ofsted email at the start and end of August but still had no response. I tried the helpline but it gives an automated response for childminders then cuts off the call.”

New changes to safer recruitment in the EYFS 

Whilst we saw similar delays again this summer in preparation for the start of term in September, childminders looking to register assistants also had the added concern over a new change to safer recruitment in the EYFS. From 1 September 2026, new rules around when an assistant or student can legally start working in a setting now apply that means that supervision is no longer enough to permit a new assistant from starting:  

As the wording in the EYFS, updated 1 September 2026, states assistants “…must be cleared as ‘suitable’ by Ofsted or their CMA via the suitability letter before they can begin working in the setting.”  

Under the old EYFS framework, a childminding assistant or student on placement could start work before their suitability letter had come back as cleared, as long as they were fully supervised and did not count within ratios. This provided some flexibility for new starters whilst waiting for checks to come back. 

Due to these changes, childminders are now contacting us to say that if their assistant leaves, they have to give notice to families. This is because these new changes are resulting in increased time to wait for the suitability letter meaning that they simply cannot recruit a new assistant in time. One childminder told us of their worry at what might happen to their business if they have to wait 15 weeks for Ofsted checks. 

“My current employee is employed so is entitled to be paid but I have no help as she can’t work. She is instead looking after my children, collecting from school or taking my youngest off premises so I can remain in ratio and have to pay her. It is appalling that this is what is happening, I am losing money daily and have only yesterday been told it could be another 15 weeks for her suitability letter to come through. I have two other staff hoping to start with me but I can’t offer them a start date until their suitability letter comes through. I have already paid for DBS, safeguarding, paediatric first aid and I don’t know if I will be able to offer them work if it takes too long. Any longer and my waiting families will find new childcare and then I won’t have availability for my staff. I worry my new staff will also seek new employment.” 

Another also highlights the financial burden they have taken on due to these changes. 

“We had to offer the new assistant an immediate start otherwise they would find another job in the meantime. The new assistant could not be counted toward the ratio and therefore had to pay an extra staff cost with no extra children. This had caused a significant financial impact on the business. Following the new EYFS (Sep 2026) this option is no longer legal as assistants can only start working once their suitability letter is issued. This new rule will make it almost impossible to recruit and retain staff if Ofsted doesn’t find a way of speeding up the process.” 

Differences across PVI settings

It is important to note that other PVI settings also must have strong safeguarding standards with their recruitment processes.  They must also follow the EYFS, complete the required checks and recruit suitable people. However, there is a significance difference that places childminders at a disadvantage, namely who is making the suitability decision and how much external oversight there is.   

For other PVI settings, it is the provider who completes the recruitment and suitability checks for its staff in line with the EYFS and safer-recruitment requirements. Whereas for a childminder, their assistants and other relevant people connected with a domestic premises is it Ofsted or the childminder agency who is carrying out the suitability checks which includes a higher level of external oversight. 

This means that for PVI settings, they are in control of the checks and time scales, whereas childminders and their assistants are not.  

While we acknowledge that the external confirmation provides an additional safeguard for childminders, particularly as they are often sole decision makers with less organisational separation between recruitment and supervision, it does create a two-tiered system. Ofsted makes suitability decisions for childminder assistants, whereas other types of providers complete these checks themselves. Given the delays currently being experienced by childminders and their assistants, this arrangement is detrimental to the sector and creates an unfair imbalance against childminding. 

We shared our initial concerns with DfE and Ofsted who advised that:  

“The Crime and Policing Act 2026 has made changes to the definition of regulated activity to remove the previous exception for supervised volunteers from 1 September 2026.  This means that work which is supervised falls into the definition of regulated activity and an enhanced DBS with children’s barred list check is required. This requirement applies to all individuals who work or volunteer on more than 3 days in a 30-day period or overnight between 2am and 6am. We have updated the requirements in the EYFS to reflect this… 

Whilst we appreciate this may cause difficulties for childminders, it is crucial that only suitable people are recruited to work with children. This updated requirement will help ensure that this is the case across all early years settings.” 

To confirm, we are not disputing whether this change is necessary. We fully support increased safeguarding measures to protect both children and providers. However, we do not believe that there is an understanding of the scale of childminders who had been working to the previous EYFS requirements. Therefore, the impact of this change is something this profession is not equipped for or has been supported to implement without serious repercussions on their business and families. 

One suggestion has been to increase the notice period for childminding assistants to allow childminders more time to recruit and register a new assistant. With all due respect, in what role in any sector at a childminding assistant pay level would you expect more than a one-month notice period? If we were to put a three- month notice period in place as standard, this would often not cover many registration timeframes, and it could soon just as easily be suggested to extend to four months. 

Another suggestion for assistants moving to a new setting has been to delay handing in their notice until the new setting’s registration process is complete. While this may protect the prospective new setting, it places the previous setting at a significant disadvantage, as it may then have to complete the same lengthy recruitment and suitability process to find a replacement within the assistant’s notice period. 

In most professions, employers carry out reference checks after making a written offer once the candidate has accepted it. In this situation, however, the new setting may not be able to complete its reference checks until it has received the assistant’s suitability letter. Advising assistants to wait until that point before resigning therefore puts them in an impossible position: they may be unable to give notice to their current employer and could risk having their employment terminated. 

Transparency required on the Ofsted registration process 

Following the publication of part one of this blog, I received many messages from local authorities who had their own examples and ongoing individual cases that reflected these experiences and concerns. Local authorities are themselves unable to chase on behalf of the setting so feel powerless to support.  

What strikes me the most throughout this process is how isolating and lonely it has been with so many people having to navigate it alone. Whether the concern is raised by an individual childminder or a local authority employee who believes there is a particular issue in their area, there is currently no forum for discussing it collectively and sharing experiences, insights or even potential solutions. Each application is considered on an individual basis with little appetite so far to examine the process, the scale of delays nationally or the impact on the profession including recruitment, retention and growth. 

We, alongside local authorities want to first understand Ofsted’s process in greater detail than is currently published. We recognise delays can arise for a range of reasons, but Ofsted often attributes this to local authority checks. However, the local authorities we have spoken to do not always know who Ofsted in contacting or what Ofsted are requesting from them. “As the Early Years team, we don’t have knowledge of the questions being asked, where the data to answer those questions is being stored and which team deals with them”.  

Can the team responsible for Ofsted checks vary between local authority? This seems like a straight-forward question but without full transparency we simply do not know. By working with Ofsted to understand every stages of the process, we can together to identify solutions that are specifically tailored to childminders.

Exploration and solutions 

Another common theme for delays for both childminders registering and those registering assistants is the health checks. Often these requests come in after delays to several other parts of the process and then extra checks are requested.  

“My mum was added to the application a couple of weeks after the start of my application as I needed to do her DBS. I was only asked for a health declaration form from her recently. Mum sent back her consent form and now we’re waiting to hear from the medical assessment team to book a date.” This childminder applied to register in April. Her mother was added as an assistant in May and Ofsted requested a health declaration in August.

In this situation, what could have been done to mitigate the delay? Should childminders provide more or all the available information about assistants and the checks they have completed at the outset? This could result in unnecessary costs if, for example, health checks are not ultimately required. However, providing more information upfront may ensure that the Ofsted applications team has everything they need from the start, rather than having to request further details later. Childminders may view this as a worthwhile investment if it helps to secure a speedier registration. More broadly, is there any additional information that can be provided at the outset to mitigate and reduce other potential delays?

I am requesting a commitment from Ofsted and DfE to work with Coram PACEY and the wider sector to review the registration process for both childminders and childminding assistants. Working together across the sector, including our local authority colleagues, we can identify solutions to reduce the lengthy registration times and prevent annual backlogs without reducing the necessary checks or compromising on the safeguarding of children. 

Coram PACEY’s Ofsted registration survey

“I’m in in utter panic of what would happen if any of my assistants hand in their 6 weeks notice period and I now have to wait for anything more than that. What do I do in the cross over weeks now that we will have by the time I advertise, find the right person and wait for all those checks? Ratios would be out of the window, over three families let down. What is their realistic answer in what we can do in this circumstance? I’m not yet in it but I’ve being doing this for 10 years and know how long I’ve had to wait every time but have always been able to employ but not leave the adult unattended. It’s giving me such worry about it.”