Ofsted info-How to get your nanny registered

Childcare voucher/Tax credits and the Voluntary Ofsted Childcare scheme

If you and your household qualify for childcare vouchers, Peek-a-boo offers Ofsted registered au pairs, nannies. We also do the courses here as well as registration in-house which means that you can send your aupair or nanny along to become registered and therefore save 100s and even 1000s this year.

To find out if a family can qualify for childcare tax credit they need to contact taxcredits. The family status will depends on things like their age, employment status, how many kids they have, if they are disabled, if they claim some other benefits etc. You can advice the family that the main rule is that the household needs to earn less than £58,000 combined per year to be able to qualify. This of course excludes a large number of families that have aupairs and/or nannies but it opens doors for key workers and a number of other working families that may not have been able to qualify otherwise.

There are also other types of schemes the family may qualify for. Some employers give out vouchers as a benefit for their employers. This is for the family to find out.

For a family to be able to gain the tax credits or childcare vouchers benefits they have to employ a registered carer. At the moment the governing body in the UK is called Ofsted and the aupair/nanny must register with them on their Voluntary childcare scheme. Please note that this scheme is not the same as the compulsory one for child minders and similar types of carers but for home based childcare.

How to register with Ofsted

The number to taxcredits is 0845 3003900 for more info. Or http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/taxcredits

Ofsted application

Step by step guide for Ofsted registration:

1. Call Ofsted and tell them that you are a nanny/ au pair and you want to get registered – you have to mention that you want to do the voluntary Ofsted registration (home based childcare)
2. They will send you a form by post to fill it in
3. Fill the form and send it back with a valid First Aid certificate
4. They will do a police check/CRB on the person (even if the nanny or aupair has a valid CRB they will do another one as it has to be done through them). If the person has lived in the UK for less than 5 years which is of course the case with aupairs then he or she will have to get a ‘good conduct letter/ certificate’ from her or his embassy which needs to be written in English or translated in English by a authorized translator (however, it depends where you are from, so please check with Ofsted first). Oftsted have confirmed with us that it is also ok for the nanny/ au pair to get a police check in person from her country and send it to Ofsted but it has to be an official document, on a letter headed paper, stamped and translated in English by an authorized translator.
5. They will send you another form (called a verify form) that you need to take to the post office (together with a form of ID, like passport etc) so they can check your identity
6. Pay the application fee – £103
7. Annually, on the anniversary of your registration with Ofsted, the fee becomes payable again, as long as you want to keep being Ofsted registered
8. The nanny/aupair also need a childcare (or similar to childcare) qualification from their home country or from the UK which has to be equivalent to level 2 or they have to enroll on the Common Core Skills and Knowledge by contacting their local authority. You can check info about your qualification by contacting Children Work Force Development Council on 0113 244 63 11 or 0300 123 1033. More info below
9. The nanny/ au pair also needs to get personal public liability insurance – most households have an insurance but it won’t cover the nanny/ au pair/ if she has an accident so she or he has to get their own
10. The duration of the registration process is between 12 and 14 weeks (6-8 weeks CRB to come back)

More info re: the Common Core Skills and Knowledge course.

If you contact your local authority and they do not do it then contact a training provider who is doing this course. One of them is MNT training. They run 2 Common Core Skills and Knowledge courses: First is a 2 day course in London and the cost for this is £150. They have it every month. At the end you will get a letter confirming you have done the course. If you want, you can have an assessment, but that is only for yourself, it is not necessary for Ofsted. They also do a distance learning course for people who cannot attend in London, £150 cost and at the end of it, you will have to get assessed as this will be the only way to prove that you have actually gone through the information, etc.

More info re: The First aid course

The certificate must be for a pediatric first aid course but DOES NOT have to be the 12 hour course (it can be the 6 hour course) which seems to be a common misconception again. As long as it covers the essentials that they ask for.

We (Peek-a-boo) do the first aid courses, 6 hours on certain Sundays.

Read more about our first aid courses and course dates