Consultation outcome

Childcare: regulatory changes

• From: Department for Education
• Published: 4 July 2022
• Last updated: 15 March 2023 — See all updates

This was published under the 2019 to 2022 Johnson Conservative government

Applies to England

This consultation has concluded

Read the full outcome

Childcare regulatory changes

PDF, 366 KB, 27 pages

Findings from the early years staff: child ratio consultation survey

Ref: ISBN 978-1-83870-468-1

PDF, 735 KB, 49 pages

Detail of outcome

In July 2022, we launched a consultation seeking views on the following proposals, to give childcare providers more flexibility and autonomy and trust them to make decisions about their settings and the needs of their children. The proposals were:

• changing the current statutory minimum staff:child ratios in England for 2-year-olds from 1:4 to 1:5
• making the early years foundation stage (EYFS) statutory framework explicit that childminders can care for more than the specified maximum of three children under the age of 5 if they are caring for siblings of children they already care for, or if the childminder is caring for their own baby or child
• making the EYFS explicit that ‘adequate supervision’ while children are eating means that children must be in sight and hearing of an adult. The public consultation exercise sought views on making these changes and allowed respondents to express comments, views or concerns

The public consultation exercise sought views on making these changes and allowed respondents to express comments, views or concerns.

This document provides a summary of responses and the government’s response to the consultation. The changes outlined in this document are part of a wider package of investment in the childcare sector announced on 15 March, to support more parents into work.

Alongside the substantial investment in the existing free childcare hours offers, these new staffing flexibilities for providers are a sensible and proportionate step, alongside government’s additional investment, which will help meet the demand among newly eligible parents for childcare support.

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Original consultation

Summary

We are gathering a range of views to help us reach well-informed and fair decisions on proposed regulatory changes to childcare in England.

This consultation was held on another website.

This consultation ran from
9:30am on 4 July 2022 to 11:45pm on 16 September 2022

Consultation description

This consultation seeks views on proposals to:

• change the current statutory minimum staff:child ratios in England for 2-year-olds from 1:4 to 1:5
• change the early years foundation stage statutory framework (the EYFS) to be explicit that childminders can care for more than the specified maximum of three children under the age of 5 if they are caring for siblings of children they already care for, or if the childminder is caring for their own baby or child
• make the Early Years Foundation Stage statutory framework (EYFS) explicit that ‘adequate supervision’ while children are eating means that children must be able to see and hear an adult

Published 4 July 2022
Last updated 15 March 2023 + show all updates

1. 15 March 2023

   Published the government's response to the consultation.

2. 4 July 2022

   First published.