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To meet Wales’ childcare standards, your child’s childcare provider must follow the National Minimum Standards (NMS) and regulations in Wales in order to legally operate. The aim of the National Minimum Standards is to ensure your child is supported to reach their potential as individuals.
Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW) is responsible for ensuring standards are upheld by childminding and day care providers is.
CIW uses National Minimum Standards to determine whether an early years setting is providing adequate care for children.
Who upholds the childcare standards in Wales?
The Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW) monitors, inspects and publishes reports to ensure early years providers in Wales uphold the minimum standards and provide high quality childcare.
The CIW assesses each provider based on the national minimum standards Wales. It looks at well-being, care and development, environment as well as leadership and management.
This inspection reports help you as a parent to make informed decisions about childcare and early years education and ensures each early years provider is a high standard.
What are the National Minimum Standards in Wales?
National Minimum Standards apply to all registered providers of childcare in Wales unless specifically indicated. There are 24 standards which childcare providers for children up to the age of 12 must meet.
Childcare standards for Wales cover 8 areas:
- Information.
- Planning for individual needs and preferences.
- Empowering service users, encouraging lifestyle choices.
- Quality of care.
- Staffing.
- Conduct and management of the services.
- Complaints, protection and notifications of significant events.
- The physical environment.
The standards are in practice in different ways because individual nurseries in Wales have different childcare approaches. For example, some childcare providers may follow the Reggio Emilia approach. Regardless of a nursery provider’s approach, they must all adhere to the National Minimum Standards and meet regulatory requirements.
What are the 24 childcare standards in Wales?
Listed below are the minimum requirements childcare providers must meet to provide quality childcare in Wales. Early years providers must continuously work towards exceeding these standards.
1. Information about the setting
The setting has to give parents/guardians sufficient accurate information about the setting such as numbers, ages and sex of children for whom care is to be provided. This enables parents to make an informed decision about the service.
Childcare providers must compile a Statement of Purpose outlining aims and objectives, services offered, activities offered, routines, facilities available etc.
2. The contract
Your nursery provider will agree a written contract with the parent/guardian. It should outline the expectations of both parties about the care of the child, activities, etc.
The contract must include the terms and conditions, e.g. information about arrival and collection, dietary needs, financial matters, fees, sickness and holiday policy, emergency procedures, administration of medicine and complaints.
3. Assessment
Nursery staff identify the needs and preferences of each child and inform parents how these will be met.
You and your child should be encouraged to visit before they start attending the early years setting. This ensures your child’s needs are clearly identified.
Early years settings should ask parents information they think is important to ensure the best possible care for their child.
4. Meeting individual needs
If your child has individual needs, such as Additional Learning Needs (ALN), Special Educational Needs and Disabilities, they must be planned and provided for.
Early years providers are responsible for ensuring that they can meet the assessed needs of children placed with them. Nurseries must ensure that their staff have the skills and experience necessary to plan for and meet your child’s individual needs and preferences.
5. Records
The parent and the CIW should have appropriate access to a full range of records maintained by your early years provider.
The provider must keep records which include:
- Name, address and telephone number of the registered person
- The responsible individual
- Every person living, working or employed on the premises where childcare is provided
- Name, address, date of birth and sex of each child
- Each child’s special dietary or health needs or allergies
- Contact details of parents
- Any accidents, serious illness and other significant events on the premises which affect the welfare of children.
Nurseries and other early years providers need to keep any records about a child secure and confidential and make it available to the CIW if they request them.
6. Working in partnership with parents
You, as a parent, must be kept fully informed and informed about your child’s activities, achievements and progress.
Parents should receive details of what your child has achieved during the day, including significant changes in behaviour. Early years providers must regularly share information with you about activities and keep records with details about your child and their progress.
When caring for children under two years of age, providers must ensure there is a daily system for the exchange of information between a parent and the key worker, about a child’s changing developmental and care needs and routines.
7. Opportunities for play and learning
Childcare providers must ensure children have a range of experiences that contribute to their emotional, physical, social, intellectual, language and creative development. Experiences must include freely chosen, unstructured and self-directed play.
Staff must observe what children do to help plan play, learning and development.
When giving care for children under two years of age, nursery providers must ensure the children interact with a consistent adult at frequent intervals throughout the day, that there is clear planning of activities.
Children under two should be fed and changed by their key worker or a consistent adult.
8. Nurture and well-being
Your child should feel secure, happy and comfortable with their carers and in their environment. Staff need to respect their rights.
The settling-in process must be appropriate for the individual child to minimise separation anxiety and distress.
9. Behaviour
Nursery staff need to manage the behaviour of children so the child’s rights are respected and their welfare and development promoted. The nursery needs to draw up and implement a written behaviour management policy.
Staff should never threaten a child or physically punish them.
10. Healthcare
Providers must identify health care needs of every child and address them as appropriate. Your child should benefit from the way good health is promoted.
The childcare provider must keep the premises and equipment clean and hygienic. Children should be encouraged to learn about good personal hygiene and practise it as part of their daily routine.
To promote good health, at least one person caring for the children must have a current qualification in first aid appropriate for the age of the children.
11. Medication
Your child must be safeguarded by the childcare setting’s policies and procedures about medication and receive the medication they need.
Any medication administered to your child must be with the written agreement of you as a parent/guardian and with an understanding of the possible side effects. If medication is self-administered by your child, it must be in line with written guidance from the parent/guardian.
12. Food and drink
Childcare providers must ensure that children are provided with regular drinks and food in adequate quantities for their needs.
Information about individual dietary requirements (including cultural, religious and therapeutic) should be obtained from parents and complied with.
Meals and snacks should be nutritionally balanced. Fresh drinking water should be freely available at all times.
13. Suitable person
Children’s needs must be fully met by those who look after them.
For childminders: Childminders and any assistant employed by them must be suitable to look after children up to the age of 12. They must have the appropriate skills, experience and qualifications to meet the needs of the children.
In addition, they must have undergone a vetting procedure. This includes an enhanced Disclosure Barring Service (DBS) check before commencing caring for children.
For day care: Registered persons must ensure they are able to demonstrate their suitability and that of any other person providing day care. Suitability checks include DBS enhanced disclosure checks.
The person in charge (manager) must have at least two years’ experience of working in a day care setting prior to their appointment. The manager must have at least a recognised level 3 qualification.
At least half of non-supervisory staff must hold at least a level 2 qualification. Half of these must have a level 3 qualification.
For full day care, at least 80 per cent of non-supervisory staff must hold a level 2 qualification. Half of these must hold a level 3 qualification.
14. Organisation
When it comes to childcare standards in Wales, the parent and the child should benefit from a well- organised and planned service. Staff need to have an operational plan which is developed and reviewed periodically.
All children must have a key worker. The keyworker is mainly responsible for their wellbeing on a daily basis and who communicates with parents.
Children under two years old must be cared for in groups of no more than 12.
15. Staffing ratios
In day care, minimum staff ratios are:
• One adult to three children under two years.
• 1 adult to four children aged two years.
• An adult to eight children aged three to seven years.
• 1 adult to ten children aged eight to 12 years.
The maximum number of children a childminder may care for is:
• 10 children up to 12 years of age.
• Of the 10 children, no more than six may be under eight years of age.
• Out of the six, no more than three may be under five years.
• Of the three, normally no more than two may be under 18 months.
16. Equal opportunities
Staff at the early years setting must treat all children with equal concern and respect.
17. Financial procedures
The registered provider must safeguard the child and the parents by operating sound financial procedures.
18. Quality assurance
Each child and their parents should benefit from a quality service that is effectively monitored. The provider must ensure there are effective quality assurance and quality monitoring systems in place. Staff must seek the views of the child and parent as part of the process.
19. Complaints
All childcare providers are responsible for ensuring that there is a simple, clear and accessible written complaints procedure in operation. Staff must listen seriously and act on any complaints from children and their parents.
20. Safeguarding
Providers must protect children from harm, abuse and neglect. The child’s parent/guardian must be confident all possible steps to protect children from abuse are taken. The protection of the child must be the first priority and everybody’s responsibility.
21. Notifications of significant events
Any impacts on children’s welfare must be made known. Day care providers and childminders must immediately inform the CIW of any changes in persons looking after children.
Staff must report any changes in facilities, outbreaks of infectious disease, allegations of serious harm to a child and any other event likely to affect a child’s welfare on the premises to the CIW.
22. Environment
The provider must make the childcare environment safe, secure and suitable for its purpose.
It should maintain the rooms at a temperature of at least 18 degrees centigrade. To ensure a safe environment, play areas should also be large enough for free movement and spread out activities.
Outdoor play space should normally be provided. If this is not possible, childcare staff must take the children to parks, playgrounds or the equivalent on a regular basis.
23. Equipment
All furniture, equipment, toys and materials should be appropriate and suitable for the children’s needs.
For instance, for children under two, equipment should provide varied sensory opportunities (indoors and outdoors). Cots or other appropriate furniture must be provided for rest or sleep.
24. Safety
Staff must care for children and meet their needs in a safe environment. Childcare settings must promote safety at all times, both within the setting and on outings.
Nursery staff must take proper precautions to prevent accidents. All health and safety regulations must complied with at the childcare setting. Early years staff need to have training to understand them.
Early years staff need to supervise children at all times. They must have a system for managing access to the nursery premises and a record of visitors should be kept.
Staff must promote safety by promoting a risk assessment of the premises annually. They must review it when there are changes to the premises or the needs of the children.
Always check inspection reports
When looking for a childcare setting, it is vital you check a childcare setting’s inspection report to ensure they meet Wales’ childcare standards.
You can search the CIW’s directory to find inspection reports.
Read tips and advice on how to find a nursery that suits your child, including questions to ask.
