EYFS Ratios confirmation - rising 5s - letter from Ofsted!

[sarah707]

Dear Ms Neville,

Thank you for your e-mail.

The old category of children under five will be replaced by the new younger years age group (children aged from birth to the 31st of August following their fifth birthday). Ratios will need to be applied to this new age range. However you can continue to apply rising fives to allow children to be counted as older than the younger years age group for the purposes of ratios when they attend at least ten early education sessions a week.

Please see below for the relevant requirement as stated in the statuatory framework document appendix 2:

'Each childminder may care for:

a maximum of six children under the age of eight;

of these six children, a maximum of three may be young children (birth to the 31st of august following his/her 5th birthday) however where four- and five-year-old children only attend the childminding setting before and/or after a normal school day, they may be classed as children over the age of five for the purposes of the adult:child ratio;

normally, no more than one child may be under the age of one, however a childminder may be registered to care for two children under the age of one where they are able to demonstrate that they can meet and reconcile the individual needs of all the children being cared for.

Exceptions to these ratios can be made for siblings and to provide continuity of care in certain circumstances approved by Ofsted, provided that the total number of children under the age of eight being cared for does not exceed six.

If a childminder either employs an assistant or works with another childminder, the above numbers apply to each of these individuals in addition to the childminder.'

Also note extended ratios due to assistants can also be continued but again will refer to children from birth to the 31st of august following their 5th birthday rather than the previous band of under 5s (see final point above).

Again rising fives can be applied to these ratios.

We have received confirmation from the Department for Children, Schools and Families that the change in wording does not result in a change in the legal requirement. Reference is made to children attending the childminding setting before and after the school day only to specify which children may be counted as five. Therefore, the EYFS does not prevent four and five year olds who attend school full time from being counted as over fives during the school holidays.

I hope the information I have provided will be of some assistance to you. If you require any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact us.

Regards,

Kerry Smith

Customer Service Advisor

Ofsted - National Business Unit

TEL: 08456 404040

[mimo]

ok so its just the same then we can still have them during the holidays once they are in full time school.Why couldnt they just say that in the first place arghhhhh

[Hannahlg]

so we can conut them in over 5s in school hoildays when going to school fulltime ?

[Spangles]

That was very wordy and confusing if you ask me!

[Chatterbox Childcare]

At least we know now.

I am off to apply for my overlap

Debbie

[miffy]

Thank you Sarah - and well done for getting an answer

Miffy xx

[sarah707]

so we can conut them in over 5s in school hoildays when going to school fulltime ?

Yes...!

[PaulaR]

thank you Sarah for taht letter. I makes sense now

[Hannahlg]

so its jsut going to be the same as it has allways been then isnt it really

[MissTinkerbell]

Thanks Sarah - although a little wordy at least we know that things aren't going to change. Doesn't affect me at the moment but with DS and DD2 starting school in 2 years it will then become an issue.

Why oh why couldn't they have just stated this in the 1st place and saved us all this hassle and concern?

[carolinel]

i received my letter today. I think ofsted just like to be awkward and make us panic. they have not worded it very well at all, and should have stipulated that if child attends 10 early education sessions then they do not come into under 5 ration iygwim. no where on the information i have received does it say this. grrrrrrrrrrr, they really hiss me off!!

[Saz]

Thank you Sarah. I have been reading all the threads relating to this on the forum over the last few weeks/months. This reply seems a final answer to the ongoing question everyone is asking.

I just read a thread by Debbie who has had the same response from Ofsted.