This help centre article was written for childminders preparing for registration with the Koru Kids' Home Nursery service
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Landlord permission
If you rent your home, you’ll need permission from your landlord to operate as a childminder from your home. We advise that you obtain this in writing, email or a letter are both fine, and you should keep a copy of this permission for your records.
Leaseholder permission
If you own a leasehold property then you will need to check your lease documents and potentially speak to your leaseholder to get their permission to operate as a childminder from your home, even if you are only working at small scale.
If you’re not sure, flats and apartments are usually leasehold.
If you don’t get permission from your leaseholder you may invalidate your lease and cause yourself serious legal problems.
If you own the freehold on your home then it is likely that you do not need any permission to operate as a childminder from your home.
In case you’re not sure, usually detached, semi-detached and terraced homes are freehold.
Space requirements
Ofsted require you to have a certain amount of space depending on how many and what age children you care for.
The space requirements do not take into account your kitchen, bathrooms or any garden space - usually it is just your living room, dining room and conservatory where the children might play.
The space requirements also exclude furniture, as each child must have a set amount of floor space available to them. The space requirements for each child are as follows:
- Children under two years require 3.5 square meters of space.
- Two year olds require 2.5 square meters of space.
- Children aged three to five years require 2.3 square meters of space.To calculate the square footage multiply the length of the room by the width.
Making your home safe
We’ve written an article on how to get your home ready for your pre-registration assessment visit.
You’ll need to have read and understood this and be able to demonstrate the changes you’ve made for the pre-registration assessment visit when asked.
Keep your home smoke free. Smoking greatly increases the risk of SIDS. It is also against Ofsted regulations for anyone to smoke or vape on your childminding premises (this includes your garden).
Policies
Koru Kids will help you to write the policies you’ll need in place for your registration.
Some of these we will go over with you in training, some of them will simply be part of your contract.
In your pre-registration assessment visit you may be asked to talk the assessor through your safeguarding and complaints policy.
Insurance
You will be covered by Koru Kids Public Liability insurance.
You will also need to inform your home and car insurance providers (if you are intending on using your car as part of your childminder role).
- You’ll need to let your home and car insurance providers that you are planning on running a childminding business from your home and that this may involve driving children around. If not, this may invalidate your insurance policy.
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Have any questions? Send us an email to childminders@korukids.co.uk