Group-based childcare provision: roles that must register with Ofsted
You must apply to register with Ofsted if you are the registered person, a registered individual or the nominated individual of a group-based childcare provision.
Applies to England
Group-based childcare provision can include:
- a nursery
- a nursery provided in a home
- a playgroup
- a preschool
- before-school and after-school care
- a holiday club
There are certain roles and positions within a group-based childcare provision that must register with Ofsted. These include:
- the registered person
- registered individuals
- the nominated individual
If the children are looked after in someone’s home (the type of childcare referred to as ‘childcare on domestic premises’) then additional people must apply to Ofsted.
There is separate guidance if you are joining the home where a childminder with 3 or fewer assistants working at the same time looks after children.
Registered person
The registered person will be an individual or an organisation that is registered to provide childcare. This means that:
- for an individual owner of a group-based childcare provision, the individual owner will be the registered person
- for a group-based childcare provision owned by a company or group, the company or group will be the registered person
- for a school with one of the allowed group-based childcare provision types, the group of individuals who run the school (for example the board of governors) will be the registered person
You may also have members of your registered person who will have to apply to be registered individuals with Ofsted.
We will give the registered person, whether an individual or an organisation, their own unique reference number (URN). This URN will be in one of the following 2 formats:
- RP followed by 6 numbers, for example, RP012345
- 7 numbers, for example, 0123456
Other group-based childcare provision URNs
You will not get a URN for being a registered individual of a group-based childcare provision or its nominated individual.
Each of your provision’s settings will receive its own URN, which will be on the relevant setting’s certificate of registration. You can also find it on Ofsted’s reports website.
These URNs will appear as follows:
- Registrations from the beginning of August 2018 onwards will have a URN of 7 digits, such as 0123456.
- Registrations from 2001 to the end of July 2018 will have a URN starting with EY and followed by 6 digits, such as EY012345.
- Registrations from before 2001 will have a URN of 6 digits, such as 012345.
Registered individual of a group-based childcare provision
Whether you will be a registered individual for an organisation will depend on the type of organisation. The registered individuals will be as follows:
- for a company set up solely or mainly to provide childcare, they will be everyone listed at Companies House as being legally responsible for the company, such as a director
- for a charity set up solely or mainly to provide childcare, they will be the trustees listed at the Charity Commission as being legally responsible for the charity
- a partnership, they will be all the partners
- for a committee-run childcare, they will be all the committee members
If your company, charity or partnership is not set up with the main purpose of providing childcare, only the nominated individual will need to register with Ofsted.
If you will be filling any of these positions, you must apply to Ofsted to join the group-based childcare provision.
Nominated individual of a group-based childcare provision
The ‘nominated individual’ will usually complete the application for schools or group-based childcare provision organisations owned by a company or group. To be the nominated individual of a group, you must be one of the registered individuals who is chosen to represent them and the provision with Ofsted.
To be the nominated individual of a group-based childcare provision owned by a company or group with:
- the sole or main purpose to provide childcare, you must be a member of the organisation’s governing body
- a different purpose than providing childcare, you must be the most senior person in the organisation with direct responsibility for childcare