Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of mandatory registration on the Ofsted register for nannies.

Early years providers required to register with Ofsted on the Early Years Register, or with an early years childminder agency (CMA) are under a legal duty to comply with the early years foundation stage (EYFS), which includes learning and development requirements, and the quality of their provision is regulated by Ofsted or their CMA.

All other early years providers who are not required to register with Ofsted or a CMA, including nannies, do not have the same legal requirements. They are not required to implement the EYFS or provide any form of education and are not regulated or inspected by Ofsted against the EYFS, even if they choose to register on the voluntary part of Ofsted’s General Childcare Register, which they may do in order to bring them within the scope of government schemes such as Tax-Free Childcare. This enables parents for whom they are working to make use of government support.

The services that nannies provide are subject to a private arrangement with parents, and there are no plans to alter this by requiring nannies to register. However, the department is in contact with the National Nanny Association who campaign on this issue, and we continue to discuss with them matters affecting nannies and those who use them.