Select committee: Education Committee
Recommendation 9
Fifth Report - Support for childcare and the early years
Published 26 Jul 2023
Paragraph 55
Addressed to Department for Education
Education Committee Support for childcare and the early years All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
We recommend the Government work to remove or reduce the barriers preventing childminders setting up or continuing in businesses and consider developing more incentives to grow this market. It could do this, for example, by a) Allowing childminders to work together in settings outside their own home, following the French model of maisons d’assistants maternels (MAMs). b) Working with the Department of Levelling up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) to remove barriers to childminders setting up businesses in rented properties. If this cannot be done through a voluntary process in which Registered Social Landlords and local authorities create a specific exemption for childminding businesses, then the DLUHC should consider legislation. c) Permitting 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. An exemption for a childminder’s own children is understandable but it is unclear why grandchildren, nieces and nephews need to face the same barriers. d) Allowing Childminder Agencies to register part-time childminders and considering the balance of costs between Childminder Agency and Ofsted registration costs and fees.
From: Education Committee, Fifth Report - Support for childcare and the early years (HC 969), paragraph 55, 26 July 2023
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 17 October 2023 (deadline 26 September 2023).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Government welcomes the Committee's report and says it is "in full agreement" on the value of childcare and early education, agreeing with some recommendations and declining others, such as VAT and business rates changes.
- On childminders, it says amendments to the Levelling-Up and Regeneration Bill, which it expects to "come into effect from autumn 2024" pending Royal Assent, will raise the number who can work together from 3 to 4 and allow work on non-domestic premises.
- On business rates and VAT, it states it "currently has no plans to make changes" to business rates support for early years businesses or the nursery VAT exemption.
- On local authority funding, it says it intends to increase the minimum pass-through rate from 95% to 97% "once the roll-out of the new entitlements is sufficiently progressed", and will keep the timing "under review".
- On the 30-hours reconfirmation period and funded hours for related childminders, it states there are "no plans at this time" to change eligibility checks and "currently no plans to change" the family-childminder position.