Many registered childminders still experience problems with planning permission. What more can be done to ensure local planning authorities support childminding businesses?
The Sure Start, Extended Schools and Childcare Group is aware that, in some cases, local planning policy can act as a barrier to the registration or expansion of childminding businesses. It is at the discretion of local planning authorities, having taken into account the individual circumstances of each case, to determine whether new childminding activity will constitute a ‘material change of use’ and therefore require planning permission. Planning Policy Guidance 4 (PPG4), issued to local planning authorities by the Department for the Environment, Transport and the Regions in 1992, quotes childminding as an example of working from home where planning permission for change of use will not normally be required. The Sure Start, Extended Schools and Childcare Group has worked closely with Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) and Ofsted in drafting a joint guidance document for local planning authorities, Ofsted regional teams and LA Early Years and childcare departments. This guidan
