If you registered as a childminder in Wales more than a year or two ago, there is a good chance you are still quietly working to the old ratio rules without realising they moved back in June. The revised National Minimum Standards for Regulated Childcare were published on 18 June 2026, and Standard 15 changes how many children you can actually take on.
Ratios: how many children you can take on
Under the revised standards, a childminder in Wales can care for up to four children under five, with a maximum of ten children in total up to the age of twelve. Two counting rules are worth knowing if you work with children close to school age. A child aged three to five who already attends nursery education for five or more hours a day in another setting can be counted as over five for your ratio, and a child starting reception in September can be counted as over five during the summer holiday beforehand. Both are useful if you have been turning families away over a ratio that no longer applies to you in quite the way you think.
What changed for your assistants
The rules on childminding assistants also moved. An assistant can now start working before they hold the required qualification, provided they reach it within six months. Once qualified, an assistant can be left alone with children for up to two hours at a time and three hours across a day. Until they are qualified, they cannot be left alone with children at all. If your Statement of Purpose still describes an assistant arrangement from before June, it is worth checking it matches what you are actually doing now.
A couple of smaller changes
Safeguarding training requirements are now set out more clearly by role, rather than a single expectation applied to everyone in the setting. There is also clarified guidance on administering liquid paracetamol, limited to specific circumstances rather than general use.
What this means for your paperwork
Any of this that changes how your service actually runs, more children, a new assistant arrangement, different safeguarding training records, needs reflecting in your Statement of Purpose, and Care Inspectorate Wales expects you to notify them of the change online rather than waiting for your next inspection to mention it.
This is a Wales specific change under the National Minimum Standards. Childminders in England work to the EYFS, in Scotland to the Health and Social Care Standards under the Care Inspectorate, and in Northern Ireland to the Minimum Standards overseen by the Health and Social Care Trusts, each with its own ratio and assistant rules that have not changed in the same way this year.
None of this is legal advice, and Standard 15 and Annex A on gov.wales are worth reading in full if any of this affects how you are currently operating. But if your Statement of Purpose still reflects last year's ratios, this is worth ten minutes this week.