Guidance

Tell Ofsted if you have a COVID-19 incident at your childcare business

As of 21 February 2022, you do not need to tell Ofsted if there is a confirmed case of COVID-19 at your nursery, childminder business or other day care.

From:
Ofsted
Published
11 November 2020
Last updated
21 February 2022 — See all updates

This guidance was withdrawn on

As of 21 February 2022 registered providers no longer have to tell us about COVID-19 cases at their settings.

Applies to England

As of 21 February 2022 providers do not have to notify us of COVID-19 cases in their setting. Read the announcement on ending COVID-19 notifications.

You must report to Ofsted:

  • any confirmed cases of COVID-19 (coronavirus) in the setting, either in children or staff
  • if the setting is advised to close as a result

You must tell us within 14 days of a confirmed positive test for COVID-19.

How to report a COVID-19 incident at your childcare

You will use the Report a serious childcare incident service, but you will need to follow the steps below:

  1. Complete the service as you normally would, until you get to the page asking “What type of incident do you want to report?”.
  2. Select the option “Child or member of staff testing positive for COVID-19, or closure due to COVID-19” as the type of incident you want to report.
  3. On the “Details of incident” page, provide the information below.

Information to include

If you are reporting a positive COVID-19 test by a member of staff or a child, or a closure of your setting due to COVID-19, you must tell us about important dates and who was present.

Where there is a positive test, you must tell us whether it was by a member of staff or a child. However, you do not need to give us their personal details.

Dates

You need to tell us the following dates:

  • when COVID-19 cases were first suspected
  • when COVID-19 cases were confirmed as positive
  • when the setting is closing from, and when you intend to re-open

Who was there

We also need to know the total number of:

  • children attending the setting at the time of the suspected case
  • staff working at the setting at the time of the suspected case

Other information you should include

You should also tell us if you have:

  • notified the case to Public Health England via the Department for Education helpline and any advice they gave you
  • advised the local authority
  • taken any other action

Tell Ofsted

Report a COVID-19 childcare incident

To complete this, you’ll need to have:

  • your reference number - this will be on your certificate
  • the childcare address

Updates to this page

Published 11 November 2020
Last updated 21 February 2022 + show all updates

  1. Confirmed that as of 21 February providers no longer have to tell Ofsted about COVID-19 cases in their setting.

  2. First published.

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