CCM6275 - Particular aspects: child care - where child care is provided

If you discover that the provider has occasionally cared for the child(ren) in the customer’s home, to meet a particular need, you should not refuse the claim on that account, as long as the normal place of care is the provider’s premises.

Customers may be eligible for the child care element for charges they pay for formal child care in their own homes only where the provider is not a relative and:

In England

  • the child care provider is approved in accordance with the Tax Credits (Approval of Child Care Providers) Scheme 2005. This scheme stopped taking new applications in October 2007 and applicants were directed to apply to Ofsted for registration. Those already approved under this scheme remain approved until their approval expires (maximum 1 year after it was granted)(from 18 July 2009) the child care provider is registered with Ofsted, (from 1 September 2014) an Ofsted registered child minder agency, or the child care provider is a domiciliary care worker who is providing childcare in the child’s home under the direction of the agency and solely as a result of that family’s illness, disability or infirmity.

In Northern Ireland

  • the child care provider is approved under the Tax Credits (Approval of Home Child Care Providers) Scheme in Northern Ireland 2006

In Wales

  • the child care provider is approved under the Tax Credits (Approval of Child Care Providers) (Wales) Scheme 2007
  • the child care provider is a person who is employed or engaged under a contract for services to provide care and support by the provider of domiciliary care support service within the meaning of Part 1 of the Regulation and Inspection of Social Care (Wales) Act 2016

In Scotland

  • the home child carer is provided by child care agencies, including sitter services and nanny agencies, who are required to be registered by Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care
  • (This content has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000)

If you have doubts about where the child care is provided, the best way to satisfy your concerns may be to meet the child care provider at their home (or other premises). You should suggest this to the customer(s) and provider in appropriate cases; but remember that you cannot insist on holding the meeting in the provider’s (or customer’s) home.

If a meeting is not possible, or if doubts still remain after a meeting, you should ask the provider to supply the report of the registering authority’s visit to their premises. This will contain a description of the premises and an assessment of its suitability for child care provision. If such a report exists, you should normally accept that the child care takes place in the provider’s home.