Prospective childminders are facing long delays registering with Ofsted, putting many off joining the profession.
Nursery World has spoken to childminders who have been told that Ofsted is experiencing a ‘backlog’ of applications.
According to the Professional Association for Childcare and Early Years (PACEY), many would-be childminders are waiting six months or more to register. Ofsted says it normally takes 12 weeks, but ‘timescales vary’. However, it moved to a new IT system last July, and had to ‘pause processing [registrations] for two weeks’.
PACEY says the delay in registration is putting many off joining the profession at a time when numbers of childminders are in decline. In some cases, individuals are registering with childminder agencies instead of Ofsted as this takes less time.
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