Safer sleep in your setting
Most childminders already follow safer sleep practice. The parts worth working on are the policy, the recording — and the conversation nobody prepares you for, when a parent asks you to do something the guidance says not to.
In short
- Safer sleep is now written into the EYFS framework itself as of 1 September 2026, rather than sitting in a separate document.
- Your practice is probably already fine. Your policy may not be. Most were written once and never revisited.
- A parent cannot consent you out of safe practice. Their instruction does not transfer the responsibility to them.
- Record sleep checks in a way you could actually show someone.
- Prams, car seats and bouncy chairs are the gap in most policies.
- Have the conversation at the settling-in visit, not the first time it comes up.
Guidance, not clinical advice.
This covers safer sleep as a professional duty. For the clinical detail see the NHS guidance on reducing the risk of SIDS, and our parent-facing safe sleep guide, which you are welcome to share with families. The statutory position is in the EYFS framework for childminders.
What changed on 1 September 2026
Safer sleep guidance has been brought into the EYFS framework itself, rather than being a separate document you were expected to find and follow.
For most childminders this changes nothing practical. What it changes is the status: it is now unambiguously part of the statutory framework, squarely inspectable, and there is no longer any room for “I hadn’t seen that document”.
It arrived alongside several other changes — see everything that changed on 1 September 2026.
The practice itself
The same as the advice you give parents, applied consistently to every child, every sleep:
- On their back, for every sleep. Once a baby can roll both ways independently you need not keep turning them, but always place them on their back.
- Feet to foot of the cot, so they cannot slide under a blanket.
- Firm, flat mattress, well-fitting, with a clean sheet.
- Nothing in the cot — no pillows, duvets, bumpers, pods, nests, positioners or soft toys.
- Room at 16–20°C, checked with an actual thermometer, and not next to a radiator or in direct sun.
- Check them regularly, and be able to see and hear them.
- Nobody smokes anywhere in the premises.
Comfort objects
A dummy is fine and is associated with reduced risk. A comforter or muslin a family sends in is a common flashpoint — the safest position is nothing in the cot, and if you do allow a specific small comforter it should be a deliberate, recorded decision with the parent rather than a habit that drifted in.
The gap in most policies
Almost every childminder sleep policy covers the cot. Very few cover everywhere else a child in your care actually falls asleep.
The ones to write down
- Car seats. Designed for travel, not sleep. A young baby’s head can fall forward and restrict their airway. Take them out on arrival rather than letting them sleep on.
- Prams and buggies. Fine laid flat, same rules — on their back, nothing over their face. Never drape a muslin or blanket over the hood; it traps heat badly and you cannot see them.
- Bouncy chairs and swings. Not for sleeping. Move them.
- On you. Common, understandable, and it needs a line in your policy about what you do when it happens.
- School runs and outings. Where does a baby sleep on a two-hour round trip? Answer it in advance.
Recording sleep checks
There is no prescribed format — consistent with the wider position that how you keep records is up to you. But this is one of the places where a simple record genuinely protects you.
Enough is a line per sleep
Date, child, went down at, checked at (a few times), woke at, where they slept. A ruled notebook does it. A phone note does it.
Why it is worth doing: if anything ever goes wrong, or a parent raises a concern, contemporaneous notes are the difference between “I always check every ten minutes” and being able to show that you did.
What your policy needs to say
Short and specific beats long and generic. A workable policy covers:
- Where children sleep in your setting, by age
- How you position them, and what is in the cot
- How often you check, and how you record it
- Room temperature and how you monitor it
- Prams, car seats and outings
- Comforters and dummies
- What you do if a parent requests something different
- When you last reviewed it, and when you will next
The five-minute audit
Read your existing policy as though you were an inspector. Does it mention prams and car seats? Does it say what you do when a parent disagrees? Does it have a review date, and is that date in the past? Most policies fail at least two of those.
When a parent asks you not to
This is the hardest part of the job that nobody trains you for, and it comes up more than people admit.
“She only sleeps on her front at home.” “Can you leave him in the car seat, he’ll wake otherwise.” “We use a sleep pod, can you bring it?” “Please don’t let him nap after two.”
The principle
A parent cannot consent you out of safe practice. Written permission does not transfer the responsibility — a child in your care is your professional responsibility, and “the parent asked me to” is not a defence if something happens.
What a parent can reasonably ask about is preference, not safety. Nap length, timing, which room, whether you wake them — all negotiable. Sleeping position, what is in the cot, and sleeping in a car seat are not.
The one genuine exception: if a child has a medical condition where a clinician has specifically advised something different, that instruction should come from the clinician, in writing, and be recorded. Not relayed by the parent.
Having that conversation well
The goal is not to win. It is to keep the child safe without making the parent feel judged — because a parent who feels judged stops telling you things, and that is worse for the child than the original disagreement.
What works
- Raise it at settling-in, before it is about their child. “Here’s how sleep works here” in week one is a completely different conversation from a disagreement in month three.
- Separate the person from the practice. “What you do at home is your decision. In my setting I have to follow the guidance, because I’m regulated and it’s my registration.”
- Be honest that it is not personal. It applies to every child, including ones who sleep beautifully on their front.
- Offer what you can. “I can’t put her on her front, but I can hold her to settle, or move her cot away from the door.”
- Put it in writing afterwards — a short friendly message recording what you agreed.
- Give them the parent guide. Hearing it from the NHS rather than from you takes the heat out of it. Ours is here.
What doesn’t
- Agreeing to keep the peace, planning to quietly do it your way. You will be found out, and it destroys trust.
- Taking written permission as cover. It is not.
- Making them feel like a bad parent. Bed-sharing and front-sleeping at home are common and the family’s own decision.
- Leaving it unresolved. If you genuinely cannot agree on something this fundamental, that may be a sign the placement will not work — better established early than after six months.
One line worth having ready
“I know it’s different from home, and I’m not telling you what to do in your own house. In here I have to follow the safer sleep guidance for every child — it’s part of my registration. Let’s work out what we can do to help her settle within that.”
Warm, clear, immovable, and it ends with an offer rather than a refusal.