Early Years in Wales

In Wales, childminders must meet the National Minimum Standards for Regulated Childcare, which is for children up to the age of 12. When childminders are inspected by the Care Inspectorate Wales, it is done so against this document. They are expected to have a good understanding of all parts of it and to follow it fully to ensure they are being legally compliant.

The National Minimum Standards for Regulated Childcare covers many aspects of a childminders business including safeguarding, ratios, assistants, record keeping, medications, first aid, assessments and learning and development.

If you would like to see the document for yourself, please follow the link below, which will take you to the government's website to view it.

National Minimum Standards for Regulated Childcare

Childminders in Wales follow the Early Childhood Play, Learning and Care Framework, which places children's well-being and development at the heart of early years education. This framework supports children from birth to three years old and provides guidance for childcare providers, play settings, and schools. Here's a link to that document:

Early Childhood Play, Learning and Care Framework

The Welsh government has produced an early years resource that direct childminders and other early years educators to the right document they need that's dependent upon who they are and who they are supporting. The link below will take you to this:

Early childhood play, learning and care (ECPLC) Resource

For those children who attended funded non-maintained nursery settings, they have a specific curriculum to follow, and you can find out more about that here:

Early Years Wales: Foundation Learning

**If you have any questions that aren't answered here, please get in touch and I will do my best to help you. As I've made clear in Sam's Pledges, I was a childminder in England and I've had to teach myself about the Welsh Education System and it's something I am still learning about! Sam x

Curriculum for Wales

When children reach the age of three, they come under the umbrella of the 'Curriculum for Wales', which continues until they are sixteen years old. This curriculum has been designed with four purposes, which are as follows (these have been taken from the accompanying website accessed May 2025):

Ambitious, capable learners – Ready to learn throughout their lives.
Enterprising, creative contributors – Ready to play a full part in life and work.
Ethical, informed citizens – Knowledgeable about Wales and the world.
Healthy, confident individuals – Ready to lead fulfilling lives as valued members of society.

You can find more about the curriculum here:

Curriculum for Wales

Welsh Curriculum

If you've just landed in this section, have a look here to learn more about the Curriculum for Wales information. Each subject area has the following parts to it, and they are described both individually and cross curricular, with lots of overlaps evident which is always the case with early years' education:

Introduction

Statements of What Matters

Principles of Progression

Descriptions of Learning

Designing your Curriculum

Below are the subject areas that are taught in holistic age appropriate ways, with many cross curricular links and that learning is scaffolded as the children progress through their education. These statements are summarised from the mandatory 'Statements of What Matters':

Expressive Arts

Developing Artistic Skills and Knowledge

Responding and Reflecting as Artist and Audience

Inspired and Imaginative Creation

Health and Well-Being

Physical Health

Emotional Health and Well-Being

Decision Making and Consequences

Social Influences

Healthy Relationships

Humanities

Enquiry, Exploration and Investigation

Events and Human Experiences

Natural World

Human Societies

Responsibilities as Citizens

Languages, Literacy and Communication

Connection through Languages - Including Welsh,

English and International Languages

Understanding Languages

Expressing Ourselves

Literary Experiences

Mathematics and Numeracy

Number System

Algebra

Geometry - Space, Shape, Position and Measurements

Statistics

Science and Technology

Curiosity, Research and Predictions

Technical and Creative Engineering

Diversity of Living Things

Nature of Matter

Forces and Energy

Computation Processes and Algorithms