Guidance

Registration exemptions

Guidance for childcare providers on when you must register with Ofsted or a childminder agency, when you cannot register, and when you do not have to.

• From: Ofsted
• Published: 13 December 2023
• Last updated: 1 November 2024 — See all updates

Applies to England

Introduction

Most childcare providers looking after children under the age of 8 must register with Ofsted or a childminder agency. This guidance explains when you must register, when you cannot register, and when you do not have to (but choose to).

Explaining the law

The law requires providers of childcare to register on the relevant compulsory register when caring for children from 0 to 8 years of age, unless an exemption applies.

Ofsted maintains both compulsory registers:

• the Early Years Register
• the compulsory part of the Childcare Register (there is also a voluntary part)

The early years foundation stage age range (or early years age range) covers those children aged from birth until the 31 August following their fifth birthday. Legislation may use the term ‘young children’ to describe them.

If you are a childcare provider and you are not required to register on either of these, you may be able to register on the voluntary part of the childcare register. You have to meet certain requirements for that registration.

The Childcare (Exemptions from Registration) Order 2008 sets out the childcare exemptions in law. This legislation exempts specific categories of childcare from compulsory registration, based on:

• the type of provision
• when the care is provided
• the operating hours
• where the care is taking place

It is your responsibility to determine which register or registers you must be registered on, based on the type of provision you want to offer.

Ofsted is responsible for deciding whether you meet the requirements for registration.

When you must register

You must register as a childminder, or childcare on domestic premises if all of the following apply and you cannot apply an exemption:

• the children you look after are under the age of 8
• you look after an individual child for more than 2 hours a day
• you look after them on domestic premises (the term used in legislation for a home) but this is not where the child lives
• you get paid to look after them, including payment in kind or reciprocated childcare

You must register as childcare on non-domestic premises or as a childminder without domestic premises if:

• the children are under the age of 8
• you look after an individual child for more than 2 hours a day
• you look after children on premises other than domestic premises and you cannot apply an exemption

When you cannot register

You cannot register if you:

• look after each child for under 2 hours a day unless you are providing before and/ or after school care
• have parental responsibility for, or are otherwise related to, all the children you look after. Relatives include people related by marriage or civil partnership and half-siblings, as set out in section 18 of the Childcare Act
• provide care in a children’s home, care home, hospital, residential family centre, secure training centre or young offender institution, or in any healthcare or other respite care that is predominantly health-related
• are a school providing care as part of education or any other supervised school activity during school hours for a registered pupil who is not in the early years age range
• offer online education or online tuition services (you must care for children in person)
• are disqualified from registration, unless we agree to waive your disqualification

Disqualification

You cannot be registered if you are disqualified, for example if:

• you are barred from working with children
• we have refused or cancelled your registration in the past (unless we did this because your fees were not paid prior to 2008)
• you live with someone who is disqualified from registration and you want to be a childminder who works on domestic premises or a nanny

You can apply to Ofsted to waive your disqualification in some circumstances.

If you are disqualified, it is an offence to provide childcare or be involved in managing any childcare provision that either:

• requires registration with Ofsted
• is operated by a school and is exempt from registering separately with Ofsted (see ‘Registering school-based childcare provision’)

It is also an offence to employ a disqualified person.

Schools and education-related provision

Education provided by a school during school hours for a registered pupil after the 1 September following their fifth birthday is not childcare. It therefore cannot be registered with Ofsted. Education providers should register with the Department for Education (DfE).

An independent education provider that caters for children under the age of 5 and meets the definition of an independent school must also register with the DfE. It will need to implement the early years foundation stage (EYFS) for young children, unless the DfE grants an exemption from the learning and development requirements.

When you do not have to register but choose to

Even if there is no requirement for you to register on the Early Years Register or compulsory part of the Childcare Register, you may be able to choose to register with Ofsted. You can apply to join the voluntary part of the Childcare Register if you meet the relevant requirements. The voluntary part of the Childcare Register is the only way you can register if you are exempt, and being on this register enables the parents and carers of children attending your childcare to claim tax-free childcare entitlements. 

You will be considered exempt and do not have to register if you meet one of the exemption criteria below. You can only apply one exemption. This exemption you choose to apply must cover all of the care you provide and for all of the children you care for (see the section on if you are already registered).

Exemptions 

1. Looking after children in a home 

Looking after children in a home is also known as childminding or childcare ‘on domestic premises’. The home can be your own or someone else’s.

You do not have to register if you: 

• are a nanny, looking after children of any age from up to 2 families in the home of one of the children (nannies can care for children of multiple families as long as they are not caring for children of more than 2 families at any one time)
• are only looking after children over the age of 8 in someone’s home
• do not receive any money, vouchers, goods or services in return for childcare (‘services’ could be reciprocal childcare arrangements) 
• are a babysitter, looking after children at home between 6pm and 2am 
• look after children of a friend or multiple friends, for less than 3 hours a day for some payment
• are providing home education to a child of school age who is educated outside school full time

2. Tutoring, coaching and clubs (activity-based provision) 

You do not have to register if you provide tutoring or coaching in either one or two of the following activities to children aged 3 and over: 

• school study support or homework support 
• sports 
• performing arts 
• arts and crafts 
• religious, cultural or language studies

This exemption does not apply if children under the age of 5 attend the childcare, including the activity, for more than 4 hours in any one day. Children aged 5 and over can attend for longer than 4 hours.

In order to be exempt from registration, the activity must be the main focus of what you offer. Any childcare must happen because of that activity. For example, time spent at the provision picking up and dropping off children or at breaktimes when children are eating and drinking is permitted.

The provision should be specific tuition or coaching for children. We do not necessarily expect everyone working there to be a specialist coach, but they should have relevant skills to help children improve. The aim of the provision must be for children to improve their skills. For example, if the provision is about sport, it needs to be focused on a sport rather than general physical activity. Offering a bouncy castle or activities like racquets and balls, bikes or roller skates for children to choose from would be physical exercise, not sport coaching. Similarly, just providing pens, paints and paper does not count as tuition in arts and crafts. There is a wide variety of activity-based providers, for example, nature exploration clubs focused on the outdoors and tuition clubs focused on computer coding or engineering. Again, these must help children improve specific skills, rather than just be for entertainment.

This exemption applies to childminders with domestic premises, childminders without domestic premises and group providers.

3. Temporary provision for less than 14 days

You do not have to register if you:

• look after children under 8 from one place for 14 days or less in any year
• let Ofsted know in writing at least 14 days before starting the service. We could take action against you if you fail to do so

If you offer event-based childcare, such as mobile care at events or exhibitions, if possible, you should let us know in writing your intention for care you plan to provide for the year ahead, and at least 14 days before starting the service. It is your responsibility to track the number of days you provide care in any one location. You do not have to notify us if this changes, as long as it does not exceed 14 days in any one year.

This exemption is available to childminders without domestic premises but not to childminders with domestic premises.

4. Crèches

You do not have to register if all the following apply:

• you look after children aged under 8 for 4 hours or less each day
• the children’s parents plan to stay in the immediate area, close enough so that you could summon them immediately, for example crèches in a shopping centre, a sports centre or a college where parents attend adult learning classes
• there is no long-term commitment to provide childcare
• childcare is a short-term convenience for parents, such as while they are shopping

If you offer childcare where parents can leave their children while they work or take part in training lasting several weeks, this is not exempt from registration. It counts as a long-term commitment to provide childcare.

This exemption is available to childminders without domestic premises but not to childminders with domestic premises.

5. Open-access childcare

You do not have to register if you provide open-access childcare.

An open-access scheme lets children arrive and leave the setting by themselves, for example some council-run holiday clubs.

You cannot offer open-access childcare to children in the early years age range.

This exemption is available to childminders without domestic premises but not to childminders with domestic premises.

If you are already registered

Once registered, you must continue to meet the requirements for registration at all times.

Exemptions from registration cannot be applied to parts of childcare provision where that childcare is already registered. Any exempt childcare must be separate to your registered childcare. For example, if you are registered to care for children aged 5 to 7, and then decide to provide care to early years aged children. Any registration must cover the whole childcare provision being provided. Ofsted does not separate out the ages of children but looks at the provision as a whole.

You cannot apply exemptions to the care of an individual child or children.

If you believe you are registered incorrectly, contact us on [email protected]. We will work with you to make sure you can re-register or resign your registration so that your childcare provision is not operating illegally.

Contacting Ofsted about your exemption from registration

If both of the following apply, you do not have to register:

• you care for children aged under 8 from particular premises for 14 days or less in any year
• you will be looking after at least 1 individual child for a total period of more than 2 hours in any one day

However, you must use this form to notify us at least 14 days before you start providing childcare. This is a legal requirement  We may take action against you if you do not comply with the requirement to notify us in advance. We will not give you a certificate or proof of exemption, but we will write to you to say we have received your notification.

You do not have to notify us of any other type of exemption.

Download the exemptions notification form.

Specific provision types

School-based provision and school-age childcare

You are exempt from registration if you are a school providing education or care for children aged 2 and over and your childcare is part of the school’s activities, it is provided by the proprietor of the school or a member of staff and at least one of the children attending the childcare is a pupil at the school (that child can be a Reception Year pupil in the early years age range, and they do not need to be in the same room).

Providers caring for children of school age must not operate as an unregistered school and must take the appropriate action should they, at any point, meet the criteria to register as a school.

Holiday and food programme childcare

The DfE-funded holiday and food (HAF) programme is primarily for school-aged children from Reception to the end of Year 11 who are entitled to free school meals.

Clubs offering the HAF programme may need to register with Ofsted. It depends on the provision they offer. They may also choose to register on the voluntary part of the Childcare Register, or they may meet the exemption criteria above, be exempt and choose not to register. Both clubs and providers that would require registration with Ofsted, and those that meet the exemption criteria and are exempt from registration, can participate in the HAF programme.

If you are a HAF provider, it is your responsibility to understand whether you are required by law to be Ofsted registered. You must continue to review your status as and when the provision you are offering changes.

If you are considering setting up HAF provision, you should work with your local authority to determine whether you need to register with Ofsted.

Outdoor provision

You may offer care in an open space or other area with no building, for example as a forest school or outdoor provision. In this case, you still have to register with Ofsted unless you meet any of our other exemption criteria.

Uniformed youth associations

The DfE considers Scouts, Guides and other uniformed youth associations as ‘out-of-school settings’. This means they are not treated as ‘childcare’ as outlined by the Childcare Act 2006. These providers do not have to register with Ofsted.

Published 13 December 2023
Last updated 1 November 2024 + show all updates

1. 1 November 2024

   Updated to include a new childcare provider type, ‘childminders without domestic premises’, following changes introduced by the Department for Education’s (DfE) EYFS framework. To reflect separate updated guidance from the DfE, we have also clarified that nannies are able to provide childcare for multiple families as long as they are not caring for children from more than two families at any one time. An additional exemption from registration has also been added under ‘Looking after children in a home’.

2. 13 December 2023

   First published.