Safer recruitment, assistants and disqualification
The rules tightened on 1 September 2026. And there is one that applies to you specifically, as someone working in a home, that no longer applies to schools or nurseries at all.
In short
- Disqualification by association still applies to you. It was removed for schools and nurseries. It was not removed for childcare on domestic premises.
- Enhanced DBS with barred list check for anyone working with the children.
- From September 2026: volunteers too — including supervised ones. That route is closed.
- Nobody starts before their check comes back clear. Not “applied for”. Back.
- Ofsted must be told about anyone aged 16 or over living or working on your premises.
- A DBS certificate is not a suitability check. It is one part of several.
- If someone is disqualified, there is a waiver route — but not if they are on the barred list.
This is guidance, not legal or employment advice.
Employing someone brings obligations well beyond safeguarding — contracts, PAYE, pensions, insurance. Get proper advice before you take anyone on. For the authoritative position see disqualification under the Childcare Act 2006 and the EYFS framework for childminders.
Disqualification by association — the one that catches childminders
This is the most misunderstood rule in childminding, because the guidance changed for everyone except you.
Disqualification by association means that a person can be disqualified from working in childcare not because of anything they have done, but because of someone living or working in their household.
In 2018 this was removed for schools and other non-domestic settings — nurseries, pre-schools. A great deal of the guidance and training circulating since then reflects that change, and it is easy to conclude the rule has gone.
It has not gone for you
Disqualification by association still applies where childcare is provided in domestic settings — which is exactly what childminding is. It also extends to an assistant working under a domestic registration.
In practice: if an adult in your household is disqualified, that can disqualify you from childminding, regardless of your own record. This is why the suitability of everyone in your home is your business, uncomfortable as that is.
Which is also why Ofsted must be told about anyone aged 16 or over who lives or works on your premises — a partner, an adult child moving back, a lodger, a live-in relative. It is not nosiness; it is the mechanism by which this rule operates.
What changed on 1 September 2026
Two tightenings arrived with the new EYFS framework:
There were also revised requirements on what people must disclose about their own suitability. See our guide to everything that changed in the EYFS on 1 September 2026.
If someone is already helping you
Resolve it now, not at inspection. If you have a volunteer without an enhanced check — a friend who comes on Thursdays, a relative who helps at pick-up — either get the check or stop the arrangement until you have. There is no supervised exemption to fall back on.
Who needs a check
- You — enhanced DBS with children’s barred list check, as part of registration.
- Any assistant, paid or unpaid, full-time or occasional.
- Any volunteer, including supervised, from September 2026.
- Everyone aged 16 or over living on the premises — because of disqualification by association.
- Anyone aged 16 or over working on the premises, even if not in childcare — a cleaner, a lodger who works from home.
Students, work experience and your own teenagers
Your own child turning 16 triggers the notification requirement. So does a student on placement. If you are unsure whether someone counts, ring Ofsted and ask — it is a five-minute call and considerably cheaper than getting it wrong.
Getting the DBS right
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Enhanced, with the barred list
A basic or standard DBS is not sufficient. It must be enhanced with a check of the children’s barred list.
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You must see the certificate
The paper certificate goes to the applicant, not to you. You need to see the original and record the number, the date of issue and that you saw it.
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Sign them up to the Update Service
It lets you check online that a certificate is still current, rather than paying for a new one each time. It has to be done within a short window of the certificate being issued, so mention it before they apply, not after.
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Do not let them start until it is back and clear
This is now explicit. Build the turnaround into your timeline and do not agree a start date that assumes it will be quick.
What a DBS certificate does not tell you
It tells you what is on record on the day it was issued. It does not tell you whether someone is suitable to be alone with children, whether they will follow your safeguarding procedures, or what happened last month. Treat it as one input among several, not as a pass mark.
The checks beyond DBS
Safer recruitment is a process, not a certificate. Even for one assistant, do all of these:
The full set
- Identity — photo ID and proof of address, seen in original.
- Right to work in the UK — and keep a dated copy.
- Two references, at least one from a recent employer, taken up before they start. Ring the referee rather than accepting a letter handed to you.
- Full employment history, with any gaps explained. Gaps are not suspicious in themselves — unexplained gaps are worth a question.
- Qualifications — see the certificates, including paediatric first aid.
- A health declaration, so you know they are fit to do the work.
- A signed suitability declaration covering disqualification, and confirming they will tell you if anything changes.
- A face-to-face interview, with at least one question about safeguarding. How someone answers “what would you do if a child told you something worrying?” tells you a great deal.
Then, ongoing
- An annual suitability declaration. Circumstances change; nobody will volunteer it unprompted.
- Induction covering your safeguarding policy, who the lead is, and what to do about a concern — including a concern about you.
- A written record of every check, with dates. This is one of the places thorough paperwork is genuinely correct.
Telling Ofsted
You must notify Ofsted about changes to anyone aged 16 or over living or working on your premises. That includes people arriving and people leaving.
- A partner moving in
- An adult child returning home
- A lodger
- Your own child turning 16
- Taking on an assistant
Do it promptly. A late notification is a much smaller problem than an undisclosed household member discovered at inspection.
If someone is disqualified
Disqualification can follow from being on the children’s barred list, certain convictions or cautions, certain court orders, or having had a childcare registration refused or cancelled.
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They cannot work in childcare, or manage it
Not in any capacity, and not supervised.
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Tell them, and explain the waiver route
They are entitled to know why, and that a waiver exists.
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Apply to Ofsted for a waiver
It is a voluntary process, applied for by contacting Ofsted’s disqualification team. Ofsted considers the circumstances and decides. A waiver cannot be granted to anyone on the children’s barred list.
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Wait for the outcome
They cannot work with the children in the meantime.
If this touches your own household
It is an extremely difficult situation and you should get advice rather than working it out alone. Speak to Ofsted, and to your local authority early years team or your childminder agency. Do not simply carry on and hope — continuing to provide childcare while disqualified is a serious matter.
Actually employing someone
Safeguarding is one half. The other half is that you have become an employer, which surprises people.
- A written statement of employment particulars — required from day one. Hours, pay, holiday, notice, duties.
- PAYE registration with HMRC if you are paying above the threshold.
- At least the National Minimum or Living Wage for their age.
- Employer’s liability insurance — check your existing policy actually covers an employee. Many childminder policies do not by default.
- Pension auto-enrolment duties, which apply even to a single employee.
- Holiday entitlement, including for part-time and irregular hours.
- Tell your local authority if you claim funded hours — ratios and arrangements may be affected.
Before you commit
Work out the real cost: wage, employer’s National Insurance, pension, holiday, insurance, and the DBS. Then compare it against the extra places an assistant lets you take. It is often worth it — but it is a bigger step than “a friend helping out on Thursdays”, and treating it as the latter is how childminders end up in difficulty.