Childcare: significant events to notify Ofsted about
Guidance for childminders, nannies and other registered childcare providers with examples of what Ofsted considers to be a significant event.
Applies to England
Introduction
As a registered childcare provider, you must notify us when there is a serious childcare incident relating to your provision. More information about reporting a serious incident is available in our guidance, ‘Report a serious childcare incident’.
This notification must be done in line with all the relevant requirements of the early years foundation stage (EYFS) statutory framework and the General Childcare Register. You must do this as soon as possible and always within 14 days of the event happening.
There are several different types of serious incidents that you must report. One category of these is what we call ‘significant events’. This guidance has been created to provide additional clarity on significant events, in particular those relating to the following requirements in the EYFS and the General Childcare Register.
Depending on how they are registered, a childminder who is registered on the Early Years Register must notify Ofsted, or their childminder agency (CMA), of the following:
EYFS requirement 3.25
Any significant event which is likely to affect the suitability of any person who is in regular contact with children on the premises where childcare is provided. The disqualification of an assistant is an example of a significant event.
EYFS requirement 3.104
Any significant event which is likely to affect the suitability of the early years provider to look after children.
Any significant event which is likely to affect the suitability of any person who cares for/is in regular contact with children on the premises.
A provider of childcare on domestic or non-domestic premises who is registered on the Early Years Register must notify Ofsted, or their CMA, of:
EYFS requirement 3.23
Any significant event which is likely to affect the suitability of any person who is in regular contact with children on the premises where childcare is provided.
EYFS requirement 3.105
Any significant event which is likely to affect the suitability of the early years provider to look after children.
Any significant event which is likely to affect the suitability of any person who cares for/is in regular contact with children on the premises.
Providers registered on the General Childcare Register must notify Ofsted of:
General Childcare Register requirement 26 (if registered on the compulsory part)
General Childcare Register requirement 29 (if registered on the voluntary part)
Any significant event which is likely to affect the suitability to care for children, of the provider or any other person caring for the children for whom the provision is provided.
Any significant event which is likely to affect the suitability to be in regular contact with children, of any person who has attained the age of 16 and who lives on the premises or works on the premises when the provision is provided.
Significant events
A significant event is any change or incident that affects the suitability of the registered person, or anyone associated with your registration, to care for or be in regular contact with children.
Determining what counts as a significant event depends on many factors, including who was involved in the event and how much contact any individual involved had with children.
As the registered provider, you should use your judgement to determine whether you need to notify Ofsted about an event. The greater the risk to children posed by the event, the more likely it counts as a serious incident that you should notify us about.
We also need to know about anything significant that is likely to affect the suitability of an individual to care for, or be in regular contact with, children. We need to know about these events even if they happen:
- when you/they are not working with children (in the evening or at the weekend)
- when you have no children on roll
- away from the registered premises
You are required to notify Ofsted of any significant event or other type of serious childcare incident. To find out more about this you must read Report a serious childcare incident.
Changes to information you have previously given us
When you apply to register with Ofsted, we carry out a range of suitability checks. These are based on information you and others associated with your registration give us. If there are any significant changes to any of this information after you have registered, you are legally required to notify Ofsted.
Examples of significant events
We cannot list all possible events that you may need to tell us about, but we have listed some examples below to help you to decide what may count as a significant event. In any case, if something happens that is likely to affect an individual’s continued suitability to care for or be in regular contact with children, you should count it as a significant event.
Significant events may include:
- incidents or concerns relating to someone’s suitability, such as:
- child protection
- welfare or safety investigations involving safeguarding partners and statutory agencies including the police, your local authority (and services within it), mental health services, drug/alcohol services, fire services, environmental health, and building control or planning departments
-
a device containing children’s information being lost or stolen
- an incident where a child or children may have been at risk of harm, for example:
- you were involved in a car accident when transporting children
- a child was able to leave a setting or was missing for any period
- a child was not adequately supervised (such as being left unattended in a car)
- an unauthorised person gained access to the childcare premises
- being the victim of a crime that occurred on the childcare premises, for example:
- an assault, harassment or vandalism
- any incidents of domestic abuse
- any incidents of self-harm or overdose
- one-off or ongoing incidents on or around your premises that may affect children, for example:
- violence
- criminal or sexual exploitation and gang activity
- county lines activity
- grooming and child trafficking
- the disqualification of an employee or any person who lives or works on the premises where childcare is provided (see applying to waive disqualification)
- changes to your health or that of anyone associated with your registration (see following section)
Changes to health
When we check your suitability at registration, we ask you questions about your health. If there has been any change to your health since you registered and you think that change affects your ability to care for children, then you should notify us.
This also applies to any significant changes to the health of anyone associated with your registration if it is likely to affect their suitability to care for, or be in regular contact with, children. This applies whether or not they have given Ofsted their health information previously.
(For childcare on non-domestic premises providers, we do not need to know about health changes in managers, staff or volunteers. It is the responsibility of the provider to ensure that they are aware of any changes to health in these people that may affect their suitability to care for children.)
Examples of health changes may include:
- any long-term condition that affects the physical ability to lift a child, walk, balance, bend or kneel
- any alcohol or substance dependency or misuse
- any other medical concern, degenerative condition or mental health condition/disorder that may affect the individual’s suitability to care for, or be in regular contact with, children
We do not need to assess the physical health of those associated with Ofsted-registered childcare if they are not working directly with children. However, a notification must still be made if changes to health affect such a person’s decision-making ability.
When you must notify Ofsted
As the registered provider, you should notify us of significant events as soon as reasonably possible, and no later than 14 days from when the event happened.
This means that if you can tell us straight away you must do so. You must always tell us within 14 days, but in many cases it will be practicable to tell us much sooner. You should not delay in making a notification, for example by ‘storing up’ multiple notifications to send in one go.
Events you do not need to tell us about
You do not need to notify us of:
- referrals you make to other agencies following a concern about a child in your care, such as a child protection referral
- fee disputes
- minor injuries
- changes to the health of managers, staff or volunteers at childcare on non-domestic premises providers (it is the responsibility of the registered provider to make these checks and ensure that these people continue to be suitable)
- admissions to hospital for routine operations or check-ups that have no effect on your ability to care for children
After you notify us about a significant event
We will carry out a risk assessment, looking at the information you have given us and the details we already hold. This will help us to decide the appropriate action to take. We will take account of the sensitive and personal nature of certain information you may have shared with us, and respond accordingly.
We may:
- contact you to discuss the information
- contact other agencies involved for more information
- consider whether any new suitability checks are required
- carry out a telephone interview, regulatory visit or inspection
If the information relates to another person, we may check whether they remain suitable to care for, or be in regular contact with, children; we may also contact that person directly to discuss this.
For changes to health, we will not discriminate against you or another person for having a health condition. We will review the information to assess whether the change to health may affect suitability to care for or be in regular contact with children. We may also contact the person involved to find out more information and/or seek an independent medical assessment.
Notifying Ofsted will not necessarily affect your registration. But we can take action against you if you do not tell us about these events. Our Early years inspection operating guide for inspectors explains how significant events inform inspection of providers on the Early Years Register. Our enforcement policy sets out our approach to regulation and enforcement.
How we will use your information
To find out how we process any personal data, read our early years privacy notice. This sets out your rights and the standards you can expect from Ofsted when we collect, hold or use your personal information.
The legal framework
It is a legal requirement to notify Ofsted of significant events. This is set out in regulation 8 and paragraph 7 of the Schedule to the Early Years Foundation Stage (Welfare Requirements) Regulations 2012 and the early years foundation stage (EYFS) statutory framework, specifically paragraph 3.102 for childminders and group providers. The EYFS framework states that failure to notify Ofsted of significant events without a reasonable excuse is an offence. This is also set out in the Childcare (General Childcare Register) Regulations 2008, specifically requirement 26 (compulsory part) and 29 (voluntary part).