The statutory requirements for safeguarding in England were updated in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) 2024. It’s important that all early years providers are aware of the changes and reflect them, where appropriate, in their documentation and practice.
**If you (as the childminder) work with an assistant, you ‘must take lead responsibility for safeguarding children’ in the setting.
Parents need to be informed in the safeguarding policy that you are the designated safeguarding lead (DSL) for your setting. You might have a poster which states the name of the DSL from your Local Authority to share with parents as part of the safeguarding policy.
**You must know ‘how to contact the local statutory children’s services and the LSPs (local safeguarding partners).’
Your LSP might be called something different so you should check locally if you are unsure – for example, in some areas of the country, the LSP are called MASH or Front Door. You must include contact details for the LSP in your policy.
Note that if you care for children from a different local authority, you will need to research their LSP details and include them in your policy.
If you have staff, you should also put the contact details where they can be read by the staff without them having to ask you for access – for example, displayed on the wall or in a distinctive, labelled folder.
**The EYFS states that, ‘All practitioners must be alert to any issues of concern in the child’s life at home or
elsewhere.’
This means, for example, that if a child makes a disclosure about something that happened to them at home, you must ‘believe the child’ and report it to the local safeguarding partners. Or if you become aware that there is a safeguarding concern in another early years setting, you must report it for investigation. Bear in mind that your report might be a small part of a bigger jigsaw that can be used to keep the child safe.
**If you work with another childminder, you are now equally responsible for safeguarding.
This means, for example, that you both need to do safeguarding training and you are both the safeguarding lead in the setting. You will likely have your own key children, but if you are concerned about the other childminder’s key child or the behaviour of the other childminder, you have a duty to report your concerns. This is the same procedure to follow whether you are 2 childminders who are married, wider family members or friends who work together.
You should set out your responsibilities in a whistleblowing procedure which should be part of your safeguarding policy.
**The EYFS states that you, ‘must have and implement policies and procedures to keep children safe and meet EYFS requirements.’
You must also be able to explain your policies and procedures to parents / carers, and Ofsted inspectors and ensure any assistants follow these policies and procedures. You will use your policies as a starting point during staff induction training and keep staff updated if there are any changes.
**The EYFS states that, ‘Policies and procedures should be ‘in line with the guidance and procedures of the relevant LSP.’
Your safeguarding policy should ideally be a model policy from your local authority so it has all the local contact details on it – and it must be shared with parents to comply with the Childcare Register requirements and Ofsted on request.
If your local authority does not have a model policy, you will find one from childcare.co.uk here for gold members –
https://www.childcare.co.uk/childminderpolicies/safeguarding
You might want other policies in writing – for example, behaviour, medication administration, emergency procedures etc – as a childminder, this is your choice. You will find a selection of free policies from Childcare.co.uk here - https://www.childcare.co.uk/childminderpolicies
**The EYFS now includes information about what safeguarding policies must include.
There has always been a requirement in the Childcare Register to have a written safeguarding policy which is shared with parents – this has not changed. The EYFS now sets out the contents of a safeguarding policy – these should be considered minimum requirements.
The EYFS states that the following information must be included in the policy –
• The action to be taken when there are safeguarding concerns about a child.
Record and report without delay to the LSP and Ofsted – notify the police in an emergency.
• The action to be taken in the event of an allegation being made against the childminder or an assistant.
Record and suspend the staff member – report without delay to the LADO (Local Authority Designated Officer) and Ofsted – notify the police in an emergency. In this scenario, for childminders, you should be ready to close the setting pending investigation.
• How mobile phones, cameras and other electronic devices with imaging and sharing capabilities are used in the setting.
Note that the requirement to have a policy about ‘mobile phones and cameras’ has been extended to include ‘other electronic devices with imaging and sharing capabilities.’ This includes, for example, smart watches or cameras used in the setting to monitor staff and children.
There are, of course, other elements of the safeguarding policy – for example, lost / missing child procedures and uncollected child procedures, which are found elsewhere in the EYFS requirements.
**Further useful documents
There is a link in the EYFS to additional guidance on online safety - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/safeguarding-children-and-protecting-professionals-in-early-years-settings-online-safety-considerations
The EYFS includes reference to the statutory guidance –
... Working Together to Safeguard Children.
... Prevent duty guidance for England and Wales.
... Keeping Children Safe in Education.
You will find a list of latest documents with links on the Independent Childminders Facebook group.
There are further requirements relating to safeguarding children in the EYFS. I wanted to focus on changes to the policy here.
I hope this clarifies. Sarah.
Picture: Ofsted Childcare Registration page.