Zara Smith, PACEY Advisor

Whether you are a childminder employing an assistant or, a group setting employing  staff, it is important to ensure that you know your responsibilities as an employer.

Being an employer comes with lots of responsibilities. Navigating these sometimes-complex issues can be daunting. You need to be considerate of all the relevant legislations such as the Health and Safety at Work Act, the Equality Act and the Employment Rights Act.

We are focusing below on some specific areas of responsibility in this blog but there is more in other PACEY resources, we’ve included some links for you at the end.

Health and Safety

As an employer you have a responsibility to ensure that you provide a safe place of work for your staff, as well as the children.  Some of this you may already be doing, such as identifying any risks or hazards in the workplace, assessing those risks and taking steps to control or minimise them.  When you are employing staff there are some additional elements you need to consider.  For example, there is a legal obligation to ensure that all staff members have adequate and appropriate health and safety training so that they know how to work safely without risking their health and the health of those around them.

Insurance

When employing staff, you have a legal requirement to have Employers Liability Insurance. For childminders, PACEY Practitioner membership includes ELI cover for one childminder and up to two assistants/students. Find out about childminding insurance and more. Group settings can get a no-obligation quote for your nursery or preschool insurance from Morton Michel. Find out more with Manager or Manager Plus membership from PACEY.

Treating staff fairly and without discrimination

The Equality Act 2010 is intended to protect people from discrimination in the workplace.  There are nine protected characteristics and you can find out more about these here:

Employment Law

When you start to employ people, there are several things that you must do to ensure that you are meeting your responsibilities under the Employment Rights Act 1996.  First you will need to decide how many hours your staff will work, what their hourly rate of pay will be (at least the National Minimum Wage) and what their holiday entitlement is going to be.  If your new employee is eligible, you must also ensure that you enrol them into a workplace pension scheme.

For all potential applicants, you must ensure that they have the right to work in the UK.  You will need to check their identify, and obtain at least two references, ideally from their last place of work and one other workplace. 

New employees should receive a written statement of employment on or before their first day of work, which should include the main conditions of their employment.  It should include the name of both the employee and the employer, the job title, start date, expected hours and days to be worked, holiday entitlement, the place of work, the probation periods and information about any obligatory training and benefits offered.  Sometimes this is included within a contract of employment, which includes a wider statement with details of pension schemes, disciplinary and grievance procedures, other non-compulsory training and other matters.

Safer recruitment

The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) helps employers to make safer recruitment decisions and prevent unsuitable people from working with vulnerable groups, including children. All staff employed to work at a childcare setting must have an enhanced DBS check to ensure that they are suitable to work with children.

Don’t forget that if you are a childminder, in England you will need to inform Ofsted of new adults on the premises within 14 days.  Ofsted will carry out suitability checks on new adults you must not include them in the ratios, or leave them alone with the children until they get a suitability letter.

If you are a childminder in Wales you need to notify CIW if you intend to employ an assistant and have submitted an up to date Statement of Purpose. Childcare providers in Wales will also have to ensure they are meeting any other requirements outlined in the regulations and National Minimum Standards related to staffing. 

Payroll

In order to pay your staff, you will need to register as an employer with HMRC so you do PAYE.  It is worth noting that you can do this up to 4 weeks before paying staff – a job that you can get done early!  You will need to decide how you are going to run payroll.  If you choose to do this yourself, you may need to purchase a payroll package, or you may choose to outsource this to a payroll company.  Whichever route you choose, you will need to ensure that you provide an appropriate itemised payslip every month.

As you can see there is a lot consider when you are recruiting and employing staff.  With some thought and planning, you will be able to define the processes and procedures that you are using and once you have these in place, things should run smoothly. 

PACEY membership comes with access to legal advice:

• A free legal advice line, provided by ARAG, is open 24/7 to help you manage contracts, complaints, and disputes, offering essential reassurance in such uncertain times.
• The legal advice line can help you with any other legal problem in your life, from registering a business, to moving home to family law.
• ARAG also provide free legal templates to help you manage challenging situations, such as chasing debts, before they escalate.
• Find out how PACEY membership can Protect and reassure you.

For further information and guidance, please have a look at the links below.

#Signposts

• Employing people: an introduction to your responsibilities | PACEY
• BLOG: An introduction to public liability insurance | PACEY
• Business Smart | PACEY
• BLOG: Paying at least the National Minimum Wage isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s the law. | PACEY
• Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) Safer recruitment | PACEY

More for Members

• Legal advice and support helplines | PACEY
• Assistants | PACEY
• Nurseries and other daycare | PACEY
• Employee Essentials: Finances | PACEY
• All about pensions | PACEY
• Focus on… Recruitment | PACEY
• PACEY Live: Employing people: an introduction to your responsibilities | PACEY
• PACEY Live webinar: Is it time for an apprentice | PACEY
• PACEY Live webinar: DBS – Making Recruitment Safer | PACEY
• Leadership and management – free training for members | PACEY

Useful links:

• Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)
• HSE: Information about health and safety at work
• Set up a business – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
• Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 – legislation explained (hse.gov.uk)
• Equality Act 2010: guidance – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
• Register as an employer – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
• Employment Rights Act 1996 (legislation.gov.uk)
• Employers’ right to work checklist – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
• Childminders: report new adults in the home – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)