Growing your childminding business in 2026

2025 was a tough year for most childminders business-wise.

• There was a new nutrition statutory guidance document in April that is still sending flurries through the early years sector – birthday cake anyone?


• The EYFS was updated in September and a lot of new information was added to the safeguarding and welfare requirements


• The Ofsted inspection framework was changed from November and the jury is still out on whether it has added to inspection stress or not.


• HMRC have not helped with confusion in December about changes to reporting for making tax digital.

When thinking about your professional growth, reflect on how well you managed changes and what you have done to, for example, stay updated with new training, improve your relationships with parents, engage with the local authority etc. Maybe you’ve had a recent inspection and you need to stop looking at the negatives in the report and celebrate before you take a moment to review your action plan – maybe you’ve struggled with a family and giving notice is the only viable option, but you don’t like making big business decisions.

Your personal life is important too. Your business can only flourish when your personal affairs are running smoothly. Your year might have been stable or up and down – think about how you are feeling because this will have a big impact on your planning for the year ahead. When thinking about your personal growth, consider health, happiness, finances, relationships, habits and hobbies. Are you on track to find a good work-life balance? If you find balancing childminding with family life difficult, you might want to cut down your working days – if you are finding it hard to work from home you might be looking to expand into premises.

Start your planning for 2026 by thinking about your personal and professional wins. What has helped you to grow? When you focus on your achievements and lessons you have learned from the past year, your reflections will help to guide your future growth. Then you can ask yourself - what do you still need to work on? This will point you in the right direction to start planning about your key theme for 2026. Will it be finding that magic work-life balance or decluttering your playroom, giving notice to a family or renewing your advertising with Childcare.co.uk? Do you need to let go of the past and find peace? Will your self-growth be a focus now 2026 has begun?

How to write a professional Childcare.co.uk profile

Some childminders find it useful to put together a mood board of their future plans to make them visual, and others start with ‘New Year resolutions’ and make notes in their diary. Anecdotal evidence suggests that those who write things down and keep track of how they are getting on are more likely to make the best progress. Whatever your plans for the new year, spend a moment reflecting on how amazing you are and how much you have achieved this year first!

What does your professional growth plan look like for 2026?

January – your values

Think about your setting values – to maintain high standards of care, safeguarding and professionalism.

To do – ask parents and children for feedback. Positive feedback will provide you with a glow – negative feedback feeds into your training, to make you an even better provider. Childcare.co.uk has a free feedback form in their Free 2026 childminder organiser.

February – reflective practice

How is your self-evaluation and action planning going? Are you on top of it or feeling a bit overwhelmed.

To do – listen to the Childcare.co.uk Action planning for 2026 webinar.

March – training

Your aim should be to continuously improve your knowledge and practice.

To do – what training can you attend to support your professional development? Do you need to renew your paediatric first aid training this year? Childcare.co.uk will release new CPD opportunities every month during 2026 to help guide you – or there might be an area of practice you want to address in which case you can search our webinars and information guides using the resource library.

March – paperwork

There is a legal requirement to maintain accurate records for both childminding and HMRC. In England, the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) sets out the legal requirements and there are further expectations in the Ofsted early years inspection toolkit. HMRC details what you need to do to remain compliant with tax on their self-assessment website.

April – safeguarding

You must ensure all children are safe and protected. Children are vulnerable and at risk of harm. The EYFS in England states that you must update your safeguarding training (basic and designated safeguarding lead (DSL)) every 2 years and annual safeguarding refresher training is recommended.

To do – review your safeguarding policies and check your local safeguarding partners website for updates – put it in your diary it so you don’t forget. You should also attend / do safeguarding refresher training during 2026. Childcare.co.uk are delivering regular safeguarding refresher training webinars and Childcare.co.uk monthly newsletters will help you to stay updated with changes.

May – children’s learning and development

Your aim should be to provide a high-quality curriculum and teaching for every child. This means, for example, planning for the individual child as well as any group planning you deliver. During May you might be talking about May Day and encouraging the children to look out for new flowers in the local park. You might talk about minibeasts and wonder together about why the weather is getting warmer.

To do – use regular professional development opportunities to develop your knowledge of the areas of learning. Focus on the prime areas especially for the youngest children – the specific areas of learning support children’s learning in the prime. There is a Curriculum confidence webinar in January 2026 which you might find useful if you are concerned about explaining how you work to Ofsted during inspection.

June – children’s assessment

The statutory requirement in the EYFS in England is to write a progress check for every child in the setting when they are between the ages of 2 and 3 years. Do you need to write any progress check at 2 assessments this year? The requirement in the Ofsted early years inspection handbook is to record any concerns about children’s progress using the graduated approach (assess, plan, do, review) method. Are your graduated approach plans up to date and shared with parents?

To do – review – are all the children making good progress from their starting points? If not, what can you do to change your approaches and support them?

July – inclusion

You must be inclusive and have the highest expectations for every child. Inclusion is a big focus in Ofsted inspection and runs through all the new inspection areas, from safeguarding to leadership. Do you feel confident with your inclusion knowledge? Do you create an inclusive environment where all children feel a sense of belonging? Can you explain inclusion to your Ofsted inspector?

To do – update your SEND training - DfE has some free SEND training available. Review your assessments for children who have gaps in their learning. Check your resources – do you need to update books, toys, games, celebrations in your curriculum etc to better reflect the world around us? Childcare.co.uk has a new, Inclusion – what you need to know blog.

August – health and safety

Are you confident that you keep children as safe as ‘reasonably practicable’ (Health and Safety Executive)? Do your ratios, spaces and outings keep children safe and healthy? For example, during a recent Ofsted inspection, the inspector noted that stacked high chairs were a hazard when babies were crawling past; in another inspection, it was noted that the fire exit was cluttered with toys and bags which would impede children’s exit in an emergency.

To do – review your risk assessments regularly and adapt as children grow and their needs change. Do you need to make any changes to your environment to support the ages and stages of children currently in the setting – for example, if you change from pre-school to babies? Childcare.co.uk has risk assessment guidance and a series of useful health and safety blogs available for all members.

September – parent partnerships

Your aim is to build respectful partnerships with all parents and families. It starts before children arrive in the setting for their first day, when you meet with parents and talk about their expectations for their child’s care and ask them to complete documentation. Partnerships can sometimes be challenging, especially if you are owed money or parents continually send children into the setting when they are ill. Regular information sharing will help you to keep parents updated and informed about changes.

To do – ask parents for feedback and talk to them at the start of end of the day, constantly sharing what their child has been doing with you and asking for information from home and family life. It is important to regularly share information about their children’s progress, provide them with ideas for home learning and share their child’s next steps. You should also raise it with them if you have a concern. Childcare.co.uk has a number of useful webinars about parent information sharing on the webinar player.

October – collaborative working

If a child needs extra support to help them with gaps in their learning or to support them with accessing the curriculum, you must identify this quickly and make immediate adjustments to help them engage. You must also be ready to speak to the local SEND team to get the support in place that they need. You must also be up to date with local safeguarding information and, where possible, do LA training.

To do – how well do you work in collaboration with your Local Authority - the local children’s services and safeguarding team? If you have not yet shared a copy of your LA SEND local offer or set up partnership working with your LA, you will need this in place.

November – review your CPD

Have you completed regular CPD through the year or has CPD been side-lined because of other work and family responsibilities? It can be hard to manage those little extra responsibilities when you are so busy.

To do – think about your self-evaluation and action plan – what went well, what were the challenges and what can you do to build on this year in the next year? Childcare.co.uk will have a webinar planned for the end of the year to cover ideas for CPD next year and you can go back to the quick CPD prompts to update your knowledge before the end of the year, to help frame your reflections for 2027.

December – review the year

Think about your aims for the year and how much you have achieved. Reflection matters – it helps you to improve and gives you confidence to make changes. It helps you in your practice and allows you to spend more time with your family because you have stopped completing unnecessary paperwork and started focusing on what really matters to you and your childminding.

To do – what next for 2027? Dream big!

Ofsted will ask about the impact of training on outcomes for children – be ready to talk about your progress during inspection.