AI assistants recommend nurseries and childminders when they can confirm the ages you take, your hours, whether you offer funded places, what you charge and what your latest inspection found. Publish those facts in plain text, link to your Ofsted, Care Inspectorate or CIW report, and collect reviews on Google and the childcare directories. Parents check everything before choosing someone to look after a baby, so assistants lean on sources that can be checked.
Key takeaways
- Parents ask about their child, their working hours and their funding ("nursery that takes 9-month-olds with 30 funded hours near Chorlton").
- Ofsted's early years inspections moved to report cards with five grades per area from 10 November 2025. Describe your result exactly as your report does.
- Funded hours are a major question. Explain which entitlements you offer and what costs extra.
- Day Nurseries scores only count reviews from the last 24 months.
- Check every month what assistants say about childcare in your area.
What do parents ask AI when they're looking for a nursery or childminder?
They describe their child's age, their commute, their budget and their worries. The prompts below are illustrative examples of the kinds of questions people ask, not measured search volumes.
| Intent | Example prompts (illustrative) |
|---|---|
| Urgent | "Nursery with a place for a 1-year-old starting next month near Clapham", "emergency childcare for a week in Leeds" |
| Comparison | "Nursery or childminder for a shy 2-year-old?", "is a Montessori nursery worth the extra cost?" |
| Local | "Childminder in Bath who does school pick-ups from St Saviour's", "nursery open 7am to 7pm near Manchester Piccadilly", "Welsh-medium nursery in Cardiff" |
| Price | "Nursery fees in Bristol per day for under-2s", "nurseries that don't charge extra on top of 30 funded hours near me" |
| Trust | "What did Ofsted say about [nursery name]?", "how do I check a childminder is registered?", "nurseries in Glasgow with good Care Inspectorate grades" |
Where does AI get its answers about nurseries and childminders?
From inspection reports, childcare directories, Google and your own website. Google says its AI Overviews and AI Mode use pages that are indexed and eligible to show a snippet, with no extra technical requirements (Google Search Central, 2025).
| Source | What it is | Why it matters for childcare |
|---|---|---|
| Ofsted reports (England) | Searchable inspection reports for childminders, nurseries, pre-schools and out-of-school care (Ofsted, n.d.) | The independent verdict parents and assistants check first. |
| Care Inspectorate (Scotland) and Care Inspectorate Wales | The regulators parents use to check childcare in Scotland and Wales (GOV.UK, n.d.) | Your registration and inspection outcome outside England. |
| Local council family information services | Councils list registered childminders (GOV.UK, n.d.) | A local, official listing that many parents start from. |
| Day Nurseries (daynurseries.co.uk) | Nursery directory and review site | Scores out of 10 from reviews in the last 24 months (Day Nurseries, n.d.). |
| Childcare.co.uk | Platform for parents, childcare providers and tutors | Lets parents filter childminders and nurseries by Ofsted, Care Inspectorate and CIW registration (Childcare.co.uk, n.d.). |
| Google Business Profile | Listing on Search and Maps | Google says complete information and more reviews help local ranking (Google Business Profile Help, n.d.). |
| US equivalent | State child care licensing | Childcare.gov points parents to each state's resources and explains child care licensing (Childcare.gov, n.d.). |
The 7-step plan to get your setting recommended
Publish the basics parents filter on. Ages taken (from how many months), opening hours, days, term-time or all-year, holiday closures, meals included, nappies included, and any languages or approaches (Montessori, forest school, Welsh-medium). Put these on your homepage in text, not only in a brochure PDF.
Explain funding in a way that answers the real question. In England, eligible working parents of children aged 9 months to 4 years can get 30 hours a week for 38 weeks a year (GOV.UK, n.d.). For working-parent hours, the provider must be on an Early Years Register with Ofsted (GOV.UK, n.d.). Say which entitlements you accept, whether you stretch them across the year, what you charge for on top and whether you accept Tax-Free Childcare. Use a worked example with your own figures.
State your inspection result accurately and link to it. From 10 November 2025, Ofsted's early years inspections use report cards with five grades: exceptional, strong standard, expected standard, needs attention and urgent improvement (Ofsted, 2025). There is no longer one overall judgement, and the new grades can't be compared with the old ones (Ofsted, 2025). If you haven't been inspected under the new framework, quote your previous report as it stands, with its date. In Scotland or Wales, name your regulator and link to your latest report.
Publish fees and availability. A daily or session rate by age group, what's included, and a dated line on current places ("places available for under-2s from January"). Price and availability prompts can only include you if these facts are public.
Claim and complete your directory listings. Day Nurseries for nurseries; Childcare.co.uk for childminders and nurseries; your council's family information service. Use the same name, ages, hours and registration details everywhere, and upload your registration documents where the platform allows.
Ask every family for a review at the same points, with no incentive. For example, after the settling-in period and when a child leaves for school. Day Nurseries' score counts only reviews from the last 24 months (Day Nurseries, n.d.). Google prohibits incentives (Google Business Profile Help, n.d.) and selectively soliciting positive reviews (Google, n.d.). Since 6 April 2025, UK law bans fake reviews and reviews that conceal an incentive (CMS, 2025), so "a free session for a review" is out. Never name a child in a reply.
Write answers to the questions parents worry about. Settling in, ratios, key person system, safeguarding, allergies and food, sleep routines, how you share updates, SEND support. Add ChildCare structured data: schema.org lists ChildCare under LocalBusiness (Schema.org, n.d.). Childminders working from home can show the area they serve rather than a full street address.
Also check that robots.txt and any firewall allow OAI-SearchBot for ChatGPT search (OpenAI, n.d.), PerplexityBot (Perplexity, n.d.) and Claude-SearchBot (Anthropic, n.d.).
Mistakes that keep nurseries and childminders out of AI answers
- Using old Ofsted wording for a new report. Calling a new report card "Outstanding" is inaccurate, and assistants may repeat the error or contradict you.
- Fees only "on request". Price questions go to settings and articles that publish numbers.
- "We offer funded hours" with no detail. Parents want to know what it will actually cost them.
- Key facts locked in a PDF prospectus or Facebook post. Put them on a web page as text.
- A different name on Ofsted, Google and your website. It makes it harder to connect your report and reviews to you.
- Reviews from years ago. On Day Nurseries they stop counting after 24 months.
- Photos or reviews that identify children. It's a safeguarding issue and gives assistants nothing useful.
How do you check whether AI recommends your setting?
Ask the assistants what parents ask, and record the answers monthly.
- Choose 10 prompts from the table, using your area, the ages you take and your funding offer.
- Run each in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google (AI Overviews and AI Mode), Gemini, Claude and Copilot, in a logged-out or private window where possible.
- Note whether you're named, whether your inspection result, fees and ages are correct, which settings appear instead and which sources are cited.
- Fix wrong facts at the source: your website first, then your directory listings and Google.
- In Google Search Console, AI feature traffic is included in the Performance report under the "Web" search type (Google Search Central, 2025).
SearchCrow runs these checks for you. It asks the main AI assistants the questions parents ask about nurseries and childminders near you, shows whether your setting comes up and which sources they rely on, and suggests what to fix first. It's priced for single nurseries and childminders.
FAQ
Why doesn't ChatGPT recommend our nursery? Usually because parents ask about details your website doesn't state. They ask "nursery near Chorlton that takes 9-month-olds and offers 30 funded hours" or "childminder in Bath who does school pick-ups". If your site doesn't give ages, hours, funded places, fees and your latest inspection result in plain text, a setting that publishes those facts is easier to recommend.
How should we describe our Ofsted result now that grades have changed? Describe it exactly as it appears on your report. From 10 November 2025, Ofsted's early years inspections use report cards with five grades for each evaluation area, from "exceptional" to "urgent improvement", and no single overall judgement. Settings not yet inspected under the new framework keep their previous report until the next inspection. State the date and link to the report.
Do we need to explain funded hours on our website? Yes, because it's one of the first things parents ask. In England, eligible working parents of children aged 9 months to 4 years can get 30 hours a week for 38 weeks a year, and the provider must be on Ofsted's Early Years Register. Say which entitlements you offer, how you stretch them across the year and what you charge for on top.
Are nursery review sites worth the effort? Day Nurseries (daynurseries.co.uk) scores nurseries out of 10 from reviews published in the last 24 months, combining average ratings with the number of positive reviews against a target. Reviews stop counting after 24 months, so a steady flow matters. Childcare.co.uk lets parents filter by Ofsted, Care Inspectorate and CIW registration. Both are places assistants can find independent evidence.
What structured data should a nursery or childminder use? Schema.org has a ChildCare type under LocalBusiness. Mark up your name, address, phone, website and opening hours, and make sure every value matches the visible page. Childminders working from home should think carefully about publishing a full address. Google says AI Overviews and AI Mode need no special markup, so schema states facts you already publish.
Sources
- Find an Ofsted inspection report, GOV.UK
- Ofsted reports, Ofsted
- Ofsted confirms changes to education inspection and unveils new-look report cards, Ofsted
- Understanding Ofsted report cards and grades, Ofsted
- 30 hours free childcare, GOV.UK
- Approved childcare, GOV.UK
- Find a registered childminder, GOV.UK
- How is the review score calculated?, Day Nurseries
- Childcare.co.uk, Childcare.co.uk
- Childcare.gov, Childcare.gov
- LocalBusiness (including ChildCare), Schema.org
- AI features and your website, Google Search Central
- Tips to improve your local ranking on Google, Google Business Profile Help
- Get reviews on your Business Profile, Google Business Profile Help
- Fake engagement policy, Google
- No more faux five-stars: the DMCC Act bans fake reviews, CMS
- Overview of OpenAI crawlers, OpenAI
- Perplexity crawlers, Perplexity
- Anthropic crawler FAQ, Anthropic