Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to review the rules for Ofsted-registered childminders claiming Government funding for children to whom they are related.

It is the government’s ambition that all families have access to high quality, affordable and flexible early education and care, giving every child the best start in life and delivering on our Plan for Change.

Parents are free to choose the childcare that is right for them and their children, and childminders are not prevented from caring for related children. Funding made available for the entitlements to early education for children aged 9 months to 4 years-old, however, cannot be claimed by, or spent on, childminders providing childcare for related children.

This restriction for local authority funding relatives is set out in the Childcare Act (2006). Section 18(4) of the 2006 Act specifically excludes care provided for a child by a parent or other relative, and section 18(8)(c) of the 2006 Act states that a relative, in relation to a child, means “a grandparent, aunt, uncle, brother or sister, whether of the full blood or half blood or by marriage or civil partnership”.

Successive governments have taken this same approach to avoid 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. Allowing childminders to receive funding for looking after related children would not be an effective use of public money and may have a negative impact on the viability of existing childcare businesses. For this reason, we have no plans to change this long-standing position at this time.

Although childminders cannot receive entitlements funding for related children, flexibilities within staff to child ratios can be used to allow childminders who are caring for related children to avoid limiting the income they can earn.