The Food Standards Agency has produced a Safer Food Better
Business (SFBB) pack especially for childcarers such as
childminders.
The SFBB pack is for registered childcarers, such as
childminders, on domestic premises who usually provide meals and
drinks for the children in their care.
If childminders provide meals, snacks or drinks (apart from
mains tap water) for children or babies and/or reheat food provided
by a parent or carer, or cut it up, they must comply with food
safety and hygiene regulations. These regulations say that they
need to keep a record of what they do to keep food safe.
The pack has been designed to help them comply with these
regulations with as little paperwork as possible. It is based on
the same, easy to use, fact sheet and diary system as the
other SFBB packs, but it is shorter, and has advice tailored to
childminders, including information on feeding babies and children,
cooking, cleaning, chilling and looking after a child with a food
allergy.
It is designed to help childminders:
- Make safer food
- Protect the health of the children they look after
- Comply with food hygiene regulations
As with other SFBB packs, the diary section of the childminders'
pack is based on ‘reporting by exception’, which
means something only needs to be written down
if there is a problem, or if something changes. A
three-monthly review sheet will help them reflect on the past
few months and identify any persistent problems with food
safety.
You can download
Safer Food Better Business for childminders from the FSA
website. To order a copy call FSA Publications on 0845 606 0667 or
email foodstandards@ecgroup.co.uk.
If you are not sure whether this pack is suitable for you,
contact Bassetlaw’s Food and Safety team on 01777 713764 or
complete our online enquiry form.
Registering as a food business
If you are a registered childcarer or childminder on
domestic premises and you usually provide meals and drinks for the
children in your care, you may be required to register as a food
business operator.
Bassetlaw's Food and Safety team is responsible for the
registration of food businesses in this district; for more
information please contact us on 01777 713764 or complete our
online enquiry form.
Do I have to register as a food business?
The Food Standards Agency, following discussions with the Office
for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills and the
National Childminding Association, has provided the following
advice to help identify whether childcarers, such as childminders,
should be considered as a food business operators.
If you provide no more than the following
levels of food service as part of your normal business, you
should not be required to register as a food
business operator:
- Provision of mains drinking water
- Provision of crockery and cutlery for use by children to eat
their own packed lunches
- Provision of chilled storage for packed lunches that belong to
the children
- Occasional assistance to children with cutting up their own
food in response to individual need rather than as an established
service
- Occasional provision of food that is not part of the normal
service - for example, a cake to celebrate a child’s birthday or
provision of food where a parent/guardian has been delayed
- Operating in the child's own home and serving food that belongs
to the child's parent/guardian - for example nannies and home
childcarers
The regular provision of snacks or soft drinks
as part of the normal service would require
registration as a food business.
The Food Standards Agency has also produced an advice leaflet (.pdf)
Please note that the advice in the leaflet is aimed at
registered childcarers on domestic premises, including
childminders, and is not intended for nannies and home childcarers
or care operating from non-domestic premises such as nurseries,
care homes and schools.
Food Hygiene Regulations
Since 2006, many childcarers, such as childminders, have been
covered by food hygiene regulations. These regulations do not
apply to all childcarers - it depends whether they regularly
provide snacks or meals for the children in their care (see
above).
Last Updated - 12/03/2013