Children & young peopleA distinction is made between home-based and group childcare.
Group childcare
A day nursery or crèche counts as group childcare. Group childcare is a larger setting with several childcare workers. At least 9 children are present at the same time. The children are cared for in groups of up to 18, and each childcare worker looks after no more than 9 children.
As a group childcare provider, your premises must comply with the fire safety regulations (in Dutch). You can prove this with a type A or B fire safety certificate, which you apply for from your municipality.
If you cannot meet certain fire safety regulations, you can apply for an exemption from the Technical Fire Safety Committee.
If you make major changes to the premises of your childcare setting that could affect safety, you will need a new fire safety certificate no later than 6 months after the works.
You can ask the fire service for advice on building plans and materials that could affect fire safety.
Home-based childcare
Looking after children in your own home as a childminder is called home-based childcare.
You can join a childcare organisation (a childminding service). Together with that service, you decide how many children you can look after. This depends on things like your experience and the size of your home. You may look after a maximum of four full-time children per quarter and never more than 8 children at the same time. For childminders working together, the limit is 14 children. Under certain conditions, your service may allow you to exceed these numbers on a quarterly basis.
You can become a home-based childcare provider yourself. You then work as a self-employed provider and are responsible for all the organisation and administration of your own home-based childcare.
Obligations that (may) relate to (fire) safety
Mandatory: one working smoke alarm on every floor.
Anyone starting out as a childminder must be able to show a certificate from a basic training course in life-saving first aid for children.
If, as a childminder, you look after at least eight children, you must have a fire service report stating that your childcare environment is fire-safe.
Smoking is not allowed anywhere children are being looked after.
You must carry out a risk analysis (guidance in Dutch).
Fire safety in childcare is something you can learn!
Living fire-safely starts with you!
With this message, we focus on prevention to make childminders and day nursery staff (more) aware of how to live and work (more) fire-safely. Using specific tools tailored to this target group, we raise awareness of the risks of fire and burns. We don’t just cover the legal obligations: we also share tips and a step-by-step plan to keep potential risks as small as possible.
It was an enjoyable and instructive evening. We received lots of positive feedback from our childcare workers.
Organisations that have already taken this training include Felies and FERM Kinderopvang.