The Childcare Act 2006 introduced a childcare register, one part of which is compulsory and the other voluntary. The voluntary part was introduced in April 2007.

Ofsted (OCR) now replaces the childcare approval scheme (CAS).

Nannies are not required to be Ofsted registered, you may however wish your nanny to be, or to become, registered in order that you can claim working tax credits or employer supported childcare vouchers, if either of these are an option to you. To benefit from working tax credit, your combined family income must be below £59,000.For you to benefit from employer supported childcare vouchers, your employer will need to have the scheme in place. This is set to become an increasingly popular method for parents to make substantial savings as it is a form of tax relief available to all parents.

Payment vouchers will be issued towards paying your nanny, once of course she is registered with a childcare voucher company. Payment to the nanny can be made by BACS or cheque and once the system is set up and running it should not cause any delay to their wage payments.

If your nanny is not already Ofsted registered there will be a cost of £103.00 plus a CRB fee of £36.00 and an £8.00 administration fee. The fee is payable to Ofsted annually thereafter. It is ultimately your decision who pays these costs. Parents do stand to gain financially as a result and usually end up covering the costs by the savings made in the long run. However it could be argued that a registered nanny is more employable and so should therefore pay for herself. The decision is yours to make but if you, as the employer, do decide to pay it should be considered a benefit in kind and treated as such.

Please note that in order to be Ofsted registered the nanny needs public liability insurance, a current first aid certificate (  which must be recognised as a relevant paediatric course) and a current CRB check ( this will automatically be done as part of the application unless the nanny has already had a check carried out by Ofsted within in the last 3 years)

There is plenty of useful advice and detailed information on the Ofsted website. You can visit it by clicking the link below.

http://www.ofsted.gov.uk