As a childminder the EYFS sets out the ratios you must adhere to.
No more than six children under the age of 8, of these no more than three should be under 5 and of these no more than one must be under 1.
But what happens when you get a parent enquiry that will put you over your age ratios for a portion of time? Perhaps it is a sibling enquiry or twins under 1 and you feel able to accomodate the family...
First of all it is important to confirm that no matter what you cannot go over six children under 8 in total. If you want to increase your overall numbers you need to think about working with another childminder or assistant.
But if you would like to take on two under 1's, or four under 5's you can apply to tiney to vary the conditions of your registration.
Before I go in to detail about how you do this it is really important to say that not all applications to vary registrations are successful. You should not request a contract with a parent until your variation has been agreed. Going over ratio without prior agreement even for short periods of time in a day would mean you were in breach of the terms of your registration and could result in suspension of your registration, leaving you unable to trade.
If you are confident you can cope with the increased numbers of children please send through the following information, either in the app or via email to community@tiney.co. Make sure you tell us in the message it is a request to vary your registration.
Please tell us the times and days you are requesting to be over ratio
the ages of all children who will be present at those times
Please include a copy of your risk assessment, or a written document showing you have taken in to account the increased numbers of children. We are looking for you to provide evidence that you are able to care for this number of children of these ages for this period of time.
You can add in detail on how you would ensure children have access to outdoor play, how you would get children out of the house safely if there were an emergency, and how you have sufficient equipment and resources for feeding, sleeping and transporting children.
If the team agrees your request then we will confirm this has been added as a new condition of your registration.
If the team does not agree to your request we will give feedback about our decision.