Childminders

All childminders who provide food must be registered with Environmental Health, regardless of the number of children in their care.  Registration is free and should be done using the form attached here.

Young children are particularly susceptible to food poisoning bacteria and special care should be taken when preparing their meals.  You should make sure that cooked foods are heated until they are piping hot and if you are serving cold meals the ingredients have been stored under safe temperature controlled conditions.  Your fridge, for example must run no warmer than 8ºC.

Do I need to register?

You must register if you do the following:

(a)   Provide or prepare any food to children in your care, for example breakfasts, dinners, teas or suppers.  This includes both hot or cold food

(b)   Provide hot or cold drinks

(c)   Provide packed lunches or snacks to children

(d)   Provide sandwiches, whether made by you or pre-packaged

The form is available above and should be completed and returned to Environmental Health.

Proving you provide safe food – “Safer Food Better Business”

You must also have in place a risk assessment system for the food you provide.  The simplest way is to obtain a copy of Safer Food Better Business for Childminders (SFBB).  This is available free of charge by calling FSA Publications on 0845 606 0667.

The pack has been produced by the Food Standards Agency to help childminders meet their legal obligations, provided it is completed and maintained.  Note that during an inspection the officer will request sight of your documented system.  SFBB meets this requirement. 

Once you have registered we will ask you to complete a self assessment questionnaire so that we can understand better what you do and how many children you look after.

Circumstances when you don’t need to be registered

If all you do is the following then you don’t need to be registered:

a)      Provide mains drinking water.

b)      Provide crockery and cutlery for use by children to eat their own packed lunches.

c)      Provide chilled storage for packed lunches that belong to the children.

d)      Occasionally assist children with cutting up their own food in response to individual need rather than as an established service.

e)      Occasionally provide food that is not part of the normal service (e.g. a cake to celebrate a child’s birthday or provision of food where a parent/guardian has been delayed).

f)        Operate in the child's own home and serving food that belongs to the child's parent/guardian e.g. nannies or home childcarers.

If you are unsure please speak to us.

Leaflet

Checklist for childminders