How to register your nanny with Ofsted

If you are thinking about hiring a nanny to look after your children you might want to think about Ofsted registration. This can be a lengthy process and can be annoyingly tricky to find information on how to register your nanny with Ofsted. As I have already navigated this particular journey and banged my head against a metaphorical brick wall I thought it might be helpful to save someone else the hassle so this is my guide on to how to register your nanny with Ofsted.

Why register your nanny with Ofsted?

If you or your partner are working and your company offer a childcare voucher scheme then by registering your nanny you can pay them using your childcare vouchers
Using childcare vouchers saves a family up to £1195.56 per year per parent
The process forces you to do some important checks; DBS check
The process requires you to have your nanny insured and produce evidence of a current first aid qualification and a level 2 childcare qualification so just in case you forgot to do any of these things it provides a helpful reminder

Who should pay to register your nanny with Ofsted?

Some nannies arrive already registered and in this case I would recommend that they continue to pay their own annual fee, but in my experience they are usually the more expensive nannies anyway as they are more experienced and know that being registered is valuable to parents.

If your nanny isn’t registered I would say that if this is something you as the employer are asking them to do then you should cover the cost. Especially if they are a lower cost/ hour.

How much does it cost to register your nanny with Ofsted?

Ofsted registration £103 (annual fee)
Verification of DBS documents at post office £7
First Aid Qualification (if not already held) around £85
Nanny Insurance from around £60/ year ( I use
DBS check £44

Costs are all up to date at time of publishing, but subject to change

How to register your nanny with Ofsted – the process

First you will need to buy insurance for your nanny and check their qualifications as this information will be needed
You can apply online with Ofsted https://online.ofsted.gov.uk/onlineofsted/Ofsted_Online.ofml
Please note you need your nanny with you to do all of this as they need to create an account and it is them who needs to be registered
Next you need to choose login/register and then register at this point your nanny needs to create a government gateway account
They should keep a note of the gateway user ID
Then go back to the login/ register screen and this time choose login enter the details you have just created and click login
Now click on the Childcare Register link
This page tells you all about the childcare register you need to select New Application and then fill in the form and submit:
- The type of provision should be Childcare Domestic
- You are applying as an individual
- You leave manager and organisation details blank
- Provision Name is the nanny’s name and the setting address is your home address as the employer
- The provision basis would be private
- Times of provision are their working hours
- Under applicant checks complete the number of identity documents the nanny can produce to be checked
- Leave manager checks blank
- Usually you will be leaving other people connected with your application blank
Ofsted will now send documentation to your nanny this will include the DBS form which they will need to complete and take to the post office along with their original documents to be verified
- Make sure to read all the instructions as there is a form (checklist) that needs to be printed and taken with the documents so that the DBS can associated your application with the checks
- The post office will return documents to Ofsted or you can send this directly
- You should take a note of your form reference number beginning with an F as you can use this to track the DBS application: https://secure.crbonline.gov.uk/enquiry/enquirySearch.do
You will need to make payment to Ofsted promptly or they cancel the application, but a warning does get sent out about this and instructions for payment are sent after the application is submitted
Once all this is done your nanny with then receive a completed DBS certificate and an Ofsted Registration Certificate.
- This can take some time, for us certificates arrived within a few weeks, but I have heard of this taking 8 weeks

Once you have the Ofsted registration certificate you can contact your childcare voucher provider to find out how to register your nanny with them as a childcare provider, but this is way more straight forward in my experience. For us (EdenRed is our provider) this just involved creating a childcare provider account with them which could be done online and in that providing the registration number. They then provided a P number for our nanny which we use to make the payments to her.

All in all this process took us around 2 months to complete, but I had to look up all this information in different places and it was tricky to find much of it. Mostly I was going round in circles. Unfortunately for me after doing this my nanny has been unable to find a part time university place in London and so is having to leave us just 9 months later so I will be starting the whole thing again at least this time I can read my guide on how to register your nanny with Ofsted and so hopefully save some time 🙂