How many children can I have at once?

The rules, in full

The three limits

At any one time a childminder may care for a maximum of 6 children under the age of eight. That includes your own children and any other children you are responsible for, such as children you foster (paragraph 3.50).

Of those 6: a maximum of 3 may be young children, and there should only be 1 child under the age of one (paragraph 3.51). A baby is a young child too, so the baby is one of the three and not an extra.

A young child is not the same as a child under five. The framework says a child is a young child “until 31st August following his or her fifth birthday”. So a child who turns five in October is still a young child, and still counts towards the three, until the next August.

The exceptions — paragraph 3.53

If you can show parents and, depending on how you are registered, an Ofsted inspector or your childminder agency that the individual needs of all the children are being met, you can go outside the usual ratios. The framework gives four examples and says the list is not limited to them:

• when you are caring for siblings;
• when you are caring for your own child;
• to maintain continuity of care;
• a child aged three to five who only comes before and after a normal school day, or in the school holidays, “may be cared for at the same time as three other young children”.

That last one means four young children at once. Not three, and not the child being left out of the count. The framework takes a normal school day to be 9am to 3pm, or the normal full day at the school that child attends. It does not say how many such children you may have, so if you have two of them it is worth asking Ofsted or your agency and writing down what they say.

What no exception moves: “in all circumstances, the total number of children under the age of eight being cared for must not exceed six per person”.

Assistants, and working with another childminder

The limits are for each person caring for the children, so an assistant or another childminder beside you doubles them — subject to anything Ofsted or your agency set when you registered (paragraphs 3.49 and 3.54). Children may be left with an assistant on their own for up to two hours in a single day, and you need the parents’ permission for that, however short it is (paragraph 3.55).

Ofsted or your agency can also require a higher ratio than the framework sets out, to keep children safe. If they have, theirs is your limit.

Older children, and overnight

Children of eight and over are not in the ratios. The framework asks one thing about them: any care you provide for older children “must not adversely affect the care of children receiving early years provision” (paragraph 3.52). If you provide overnight care the same ratios apply, you must always be able to hear the children, and you have to tell Ofsted you are doing it (paragraph 3.56).

Tea Tin does this from your register

The app works your ratios out from the children who are actually signed in, so it warns you as the day fills up instead of waiting to be asked. It uses the same limits this page does, it knows a child is still a young child until the 31 August after their fifth birthday, and you can tell it which children only come around school so it stops counting them against the three. There is also a list of every policy you are expected to hold and a checklist for inspection day, both free and both without an account.

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