Make a complaint about a childcare provider

Complain about a childcare provider to Ofsted or services Nottinghamshire County Council provides or pays for.

Ofsted complaints procedure

All registered childminders, day care providers, nurseries, playgroups and pre-schools must have a process for handling complaints.

First, you should contact the childcare provider to discuss the problem.

If you are not satisfied after you have contacted the childcare provider, you can complain to Ofsted about:

daycare providers
nannies - if they’re registered with Ofsted
nurseries
playgroups
registered childminders.

If the childminder is registered with a childminder agency, you must complain to the agency. Their contact details will be on the childminder’s certificate of registration, which the childminder must display.

How Ofsted complaints are handled

Ofsted will review your complaint and see if they need to:

carry out an immediate inspection
work with other agencies to look into the issues you’ve raised.

They may also ask the childcare provider to investigate and, if necessary, to make changes. Ofsted cannot resolve individual disagreements with your childcare provider.

The results of an Ofsted inspection will be published on their website at Find an Ofsted inspection report (GOV.UK).

They will not reply to you directly.

To make a complaint to Ofsted, go to Ofsted's Complaints procedure page (GOV.UK)

Nursery or pre-schools attached to a state-funded primary school

There’s a different process for complaining about a nursery or pre-school if it’s attached to a state-funded primary school.

Find out more about this process at Complain about a school: State school (GOV.UK)

Nottinghamshire County Council complaints procedure

This service is for making a complaint about the services Nottinghamshire County Council provides or pays for.

You can do this for yourself or on behalf of someone else.

The council will review what you have told them and decide the best course of action.

If you ask for a response, they will do this within 20 working days once they have all the information needed to begin an investigation.

Make a complaint using the online form [opens in new tab] (opens in new tab)

Other ways complain about council services

If you’d prefer to speak to an advisor who can make a complaint on your behalf, contact our Customer Service Team.

Otherwise, you can write to:

Complaints and Information Team
County Hall
West Bridgford
Nottingham
NG2 7QP

Read about the full council complaints process (Nottinghamshire County Council)

Nottingham City Council Complaints processes

For parents with queries about early years entitlements and their childcare provider, please go to the following link - Dealing with Parental Disputes - Nottingham City Council

If you have a Comment, Compliment or Complaint, for services delivered by Nottingham City Council, please go to - Nottingham City Council - 'Have Your Say' - Comments, Compliments and Complaints