The definitions of childcare and early years provision, under sections 18 and 20 of the Childcare Act 2006, specifically excludes care provided for a child by a parent, step-parent, foster parent (or other relative) or by a person who fosters the child privately or has parental responsibility for the child.
The Adoption and Children’s Act also outlines that adopted children are treated in law as if the adopted child was born to the adopted parent which by extension includes adoptive relatives (i.e. aunt) maybe referred to as an ‘adopted aunt’ therefore is ‘related’.
This means early years provision supplied by a childminder (either independently registered with Ofsted or registered with a childminder agency) for a ‘related’ child does not count as childcare in legal terms. funded hours cannot be claimed by, or spent on, childminders providing childcare for their own child or a related child, even if they are claiming for other children. The Council may seek to re-claim all monies paid where it is determined a childminder has claimed funded hours for a relative as specified in this clause.