Inspection visit preparation

[mrsbigwobblybottom]

I am in the process of registering and set my forms off last Wednesday. Ofsted have called to say they have all been processed and they have asked the inspector to call me to book in my visit. I was all set for this to take ages so despite wanting it to move quickly I'm now all "arghhhh"

Can I describe my setting and have you tell me if I've missed anything please? (I?m sorry ? this will be long!)

So I have a largish room at the front of my house; there is an unused fireplace (completely cleared) and a dining table in the corner. The Radiator has a cover (you know, the white Ikea jobbie) All the plugs have covers on. In the bay window I will keep my large storage boxes of equipment: Loads of arts and crafts, dressing up box etc. The walls are all white - should they have posters on to make it more appealing?

This will be my main play & eating room so I have put a stair gate on the door (no stair gate on the stairs, I will write a risk assessment for this - what should it include!?) I will also have my no smoking sign in there, my first aid certificate and my registration cert. I will also have a signing in/ attendance book as well. There are no wires on display.

In my daughters room she has a storage unit with buckets in that are seperated in to musical instruments, dolls etc. that i can alternate in the playroom and she has a lot of books of which I will bring a selection of to the playroom each day. They won?t be playing in her room or anywhere else upstairs but I will have a travel cot put up in my bedroom for nap times.
I have a first aid box in the kitchen and a fire blanket, all my alcohol is locked away and all the drawers/ cupboards have safety catches.

Umm?. I will mention to the inspector that once I have mindees I will buy them each a separate bathroom towel and stitch their names in to them.
The front and back doors are locked and all my windows are up high. My bathroom is downstairs ? will this pose a problem? I will also tell them that once i know the ages of my mindees I will buy appropriate toys for babies/ toddlers such as play mats, gripping balls, duplo etc.

My lounge is only going to be used for ?movie afternoon? which will be maybe once a month. There are no wires on display and I can let the inspector know that I will always be present if the children are in that room, although i can't think of any risks there..

Have I forgotten anything? Does anything raise alarm bells? Also in the ?preparing for your visit? book it asks how I would manage a child who doesn?t have much grasp of English language? in my mind I would treat them the same as the others in terms of opportunities/ my time/ activities etc. but focus on speaking a little more clearly to them and building their confidence with books etc? but what?s the official answer??

Thanks if you?ve got this far oh wise future colleagues!

Hi it all sounds fine to me. As you say just talk about risk assessments on any areas you feel need them. I never use a stair gate on my stairs and Ofsted are fine with this. I explain to children they are not allowed to go upstairs and they accept it. When babies start exploring I make sure I am more vigilant but they do not get upstairs. Downstairs bathroom will not be a problem and will aid toilet training and hand washing. I have turned my boiler down so hot water never comes out above 54oC so may be worth thinking of.

Assisting children with little English, think pictures, dual language books role play etc.

Good luck with inspection.

regarding posters that is your decision Ofsted like them but don't forget it is your home too

Thanks messy!

I think that posters will be fine by me, I can put them up with blu tack and remove for the weekends when i will reclaim my dinging room

Thanks for the advice re the water! I'll make a note. Thanks also for the language stuff. Dual language books and pictures etc sound good.

I feel a little less nervous now.

Ok, here are a few tips I was given for mine:
Where are your keys kept? Where are your window keys?
Have you risk assessed your garden?
Have you printed and prepared all your paperwork? Daily record sheets, learning journals, accident forms, fire alarm check records, fridge temperature records?
Have you decided on a fire drill? Where will you teach the children to assemble in an incident? (I teach mine to run out and sit on the curb, which in my circumstance is a safe option as we are an end of cul de sac)
I found a pack on ebay with examples of all possible paperwork really useful, I just changed them to suit my settings and have everything ready to print on the computer.
Where is your first aid box and what is in it?
AND dont forget your multicultural toys, have them accessible and on display if possible. You would be surprised how many you have! French wooden toys, swedish trainsets, etc! All happyland sets and fisherprice playsets now come with ethnic figurines, ethnic dolls are easily available, (the corolle ones are adorable, search on ebay etc) and print out colouring in sheets from the net for Diwaali, Eid, Advent, midsummer etc)
Include different foods on your sample menue, my kids love udon noodles, naan bread, stirfried rice, dimsum beef balls, the list is endless! I Cooked Tana Ramseys sweet and sour family friendly pork yesterday, it looked disgusting but all the kids ate it with gusto! And it was surprisingly nice and full of hidden veg!!
I'm sure there are plenty of more and better ideas but the more prepared you are now the better!
Good luck!

Wow thanks so much! My garden is a bit rubbish - we live near a really great park and so I was planning on saying that we don't use the garden? Do you think that will cause problems?

Also: How often do you check your fridge thermometer?
For the fire drill I think I will have them run outside and grip on to the gate at the end of the path. The curb is a bit dangerous on my road.
I'm a bit confused about making sure the house is secure enough that they won't escape but easily escapable if there is a fire

My first aid box is in a cupboard in my kitchen - up high as there are scissors in it. It is a 70 piece one and I've added eye baths with saline, savlon & a thermomenter.

With the toys, do you think if I list what I will buy once I have children that will be okay? And demonstrate that i know about multi cultural toys etc. I'm a bit concerned about paying out for toys and then not getting mindees for ages, or getting the wrong age mindees or (horror of horrors) failing the registration!

I've got my policies all rinted out in a nice brocure so I'm ready on that front

OK

first off tell them you are still in process of getting garden ready just be prepared to tell them how you want to improve it

I check fridge temp daily but only because it is easy to do

Fire drill WALK not run keep key near door so easy for you to access but not for little fingers

Do you have a toy store near you who lend toys we have one plus our local library lend boxes of toys too

Not sure if you are allowed to use savlon.

YOU WILL NOT FAIL REGISTRATION SO PLEASE RELAX!

They only want to know you are aware of how to look after the children and you are aware of how to keep them safe.

Poster for your wall www.freechildmindingresources.com/childminders/welcome_posters.htm

loads of other free ones www.freechildmindingresources.com/

Thanks that's all so useful. And good point about walk not run!

If I say I'll improve my garden they will check at the 6 month graded inspection won't they? I'd rather not do it to be truthful at all. But not if it wil laffect my passing the inspection.

Thanks for saying I won't fail. Does no one fail? Ooh it's all so unchartered!

I'll remove the savlon

people fail due to criminal convictions etc or for being completely unsuitable to work with children.

Even if at 6 months your garden is not done you can say it is still unusable but on your list of things to do.

Great - thanks. I should be okay then

What did people do before MN???

OMG MrsBRB - assuming that is you with a slight name change..... - you have me well and truly panic-stricken now! You mean they could call me this week?! AAAAARGH! I am nowhere near as ready as you sound. Thank God the children are back in school tomorrow and I can spend the week sorting out a file of policies and putting our playroom into some sort of logical order and getting up in the room to get the younger toys out and cleaned!
Glad it is happening so quickly for you - what will you do about work?

How old is your own dd and is she pleased about the minding idea? My 2 are 6 and 4 and really excited about the prospect of having little ones around. Plus one of the families I have lined up is a friend of dd2s anyway. Am wondering how they'll cope with more sharing of their toys though....

waves - tis me

I know! I was shocked! They did say I could delay for 4 weeks if I wanted to. Even once I am regsitered I won't necessarily start working until after the summer. I do want to take the summer off with DD but I want to have the registration in place in case it all becomes unbearable here and I need an escape.

I need to give a month's notice in any event.

Good luck with your preparation! My DD is really excited about it as she'll have me at home nad also have others to play with. Although, you are right about the sharing part - I have told her that she'll have to get better at that

What's the current accepted position on socket covers? I have always hated them myself.

Has anyone pointed you towards this forum yet?

You might find www.childmindingpaperwork.co.uk useful. Good luck!

Fab! Thanks both

wow - the socket covers are gone!

Don't worry, this isn't actually an inspection visit, it's your registration visit (your first inspection will come in about 7 or 8 months after you've registered). They don't expect you to have all your ducks in a row yet as long as you demonstrate that you know where all your ducks are, so to speak!

Thanks, it's all just so full on! It seems scary but everyone's telling me not to worry so I'll try to relax! X