Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if her Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of allowing childminders to claim childcare funding for the costs of caring for (a) their own child and (b) a related child they are parenting when they have been registered for over five years.

Childminders in England cannot claim funding from the department’s early education entitlements for related children in their care. Early years entitlements are only available where a registered early years provider provides 'childcare' for a child. The definition of 'childcare' is set out in the Childcare Act 2006 and excludes care provided for a child by a parent, a person with parental responsibility for the child, a stepparent, foster parent, or other certain relatives (for example a grandparent, aunt, uncle, brother or sister, whether they are full blood or half blood, or by marriage or civil partnership).

An Education Select Committee report, published on 18 July 2023, recommended that the department should permit parents to claim funded hours for their child if they are cared for by a registered childminder who is also a member of their extended family (for example a grandparent, aunt or uncle, rather than a child’s parent or primary carer). The department’s current approach avoids creating an incentive for adults to register to become childminders and being paid to look after related children that they are already looking after on an informal basis, which could apply to extended family members as well as parents and carers. Currently, the department has no plans to change this position as allowing childminders to receive funding for related children in their care would not be an effective use of public money, and may have a negative impact on the viability of existing childcare businesses.