Surrey Nannies - Why did you not attend the Nanny Seminar?

[nannynick]

I am interested in hearing for any nanny who is Ofsted Registered and Works in Surrey.
Why did you not go to the event last Saturday organised by Surrey County Council? Maybe you had better things to do... after all it was in personal time. Though maybe it was for another reason?

If there are training/information days for nannies - when should they be held? Is a full-day, such as 9.30am-3.30pm or something like that, better than say several evenings?
What day of the week is most suitable?

Please do give feedback on here, or direct via PM or via [email protected]
I hope to be able to collate together responses and present as statistical information to SureyCC, so that they can organise things for us which more people would be likely to attend. If we want training events then they need to be well attended, otherwise they won't be run.

What was it about? Maybe they didn't feel it something they needed/wanted to do?

This was the info sent out to nannies. As it was the first event it didn't say that much about what would actually happen on the day. Did you get the invite?

Can't open your link,Nick.

How many Ofsted registered nannies are there in Surrey - and how many attended the event?

At a wild guess, nannynick, I would imagine that nannies wouldn't have felt that this event was addressed to them since the word "nanny" did not appear on the invitation.

I didn't get the invite as I'm not in Surrey. I was curious because when I asked here a while back about what courses/training nannies had done that they felt was really useful the only suggestion I had was fire safety (from you I believe!). There seemed to be a general lack of interest in courses/further training/seminars for nannies.

I think it's really good that Surrey council are offering this sort of thing and they went out of their way to encourage people to go (free lunch and use of gym facilities). I don't know if this is any use to you, but had I received that invite I probably wouldn't have gone. The main reasons being; it's to general, to give up a Saturday I would need it to be something that was really going to be useful; IME events/courses like this tend to lean heavily towards childminders with just a 5 minute thing tacked on the end for nannies. I feel I would have been there for 5 hours to hear a 5 minute speech that probably wouldn't have contained anything massively useful anyway. For me a Saturday is better than evenings though as I don't finish work until 6:30/7pm.

How many Ofsted registered nannies are there in Surrey - and how many attended the event?

691 were invited, so I guess that was how many there were at the time that the mailing data was collated. About 30, I didn't count.

nannies wouldn't have felt that this event was addressed to them since the word "nanny" did not appear on the invitation.

Yep, that's my guess as well. See the mumsnet post: Home Childcarer Is That The Right Name

IME events/courses like this tend to lean heavily towards childminders with just a 5 minute thing tacked on the end for nannies.
Yes that has been my view of past events/courses. The last one I went on in fact had nothing at all specific to nannies.

For me a Saturday is better than evenings though as I don't finish work until 6:30/7pm.
Yes I agree and I think that was the view of those who attended. If someone is giving up some of their own time to attend an event/training, may as well make it a worthwhile amount of time, so instead of doing a short workshop on Children's Outdoor Play, combine it with another workshop or even two more, to make it more of a one day event... plus include some time for socialising.

One of thing we were asked at the event was what sort of help/support we wanted... such as what courses, a way of keeping in touch with other local nannies, local nanny groups.

wow

im not a nanny anymore and nor have i ever been in surrey, but if i was use of the pool & lunch etc would have made me make an effort to go. (so long as no previous commitments) I would suggest a weekend day would be the best time too as most nannies dont work then

what a shame that attendance was so poor, but i guess its because the word nanny was not mentioned

OK, so some people sit in a room, dream up the title 'home childcarers' and use it to invite nannies to an event delivered by the Senior Childminding Advisor without mentioning the word 'nanny' or explaining what a 'home childcarer' is at all. Is it any wonder hardly any nannies turned up?

I'm not sure 1/2 hour walk from Horsley station is a great venue for anyone without a car either, lovely though the conference centre is.

I would have thought this sort of event could target 10% of the population, so 60 would be good number.

I think it's a real shame the event was so poorly attended. I've asked the nannies I know and none of them was invited. However, none of them are registered, so I suspect this would be the reason why.

Homebased childcarers, in Surrey, includes childminders and nannies. Training and toddler groups put on by Surrey for "homebased carers" would include both nannies and childminders. There is a very definite attitude at Surrey that only registered carers will be able to access this support.

This particular seminar was apparently targeted at nannies only, and excluded the majority that are not registered. It sounds to me as though Surrey are trying to target nannies much more and this conference was used to obtain feedback on how they can best achieve that.

A bit of background, if you're interested:
The Horsley conference has been an annual event for some years now. To date, it has been oversubscribed with a waiting list. It has included short training sessions and has also been attended by resource sellers such as Usborne books, puppet sellers and the like.
The only difference is that previously it's been the annual Childminding Network Conference.

Yes, it's nice that Surrey are supporting nannies at last, but I'm wondering why they would scrap a very successful conference, replace it with a seminar intended for a severely limited audience, and word the invitation so that the target audience are confused as to its relevance. It doesn't make sense.

Is that where the money came from - cancelling the Childminder Network event?

I am wondering where the funds came from and what the real purpose was.

I think that any nanny that registered with Surrey would know child home carer because the whole time you were getting registered with ofsted they referred to you as that.

We've known for a long time that funding for the Network event was under threat this year. They have limited funds and there's a contingent in the Surrey Early Years that disapproves of the Network.

I don't think they cancelled the Network event as such, just diverted the funding elsewhere. We can't complain - we've had a few years of it (and very nice, too ). I wonder how they'll arrange things next year: Nannies only, back to Network - if there's anything left of the Network by then! - or open to all "home-based carers" including childminders.

At the moment, I am putting 2 and 2 together and coming up with all sorts of interesting answers :)

I think I would have rather got my first aid for free to be honest. Rather than all these meets.

Have you applied for a training bursary? If they're including nannies as home-based childcarers, I should think you'd be entitled to the same training and funding as childminders.

We were told that we could apply for the training bursary, though it is done at certain times of the year so you can only apply at those times. Though that was if you lived and worked in the county. Given that nannies don't work within county borders, a nanny who lives in one county and works in another, may or may not get funding.

I agree that using the word 'nanny' somewhere on the invite might have been helpful!

Also, was it advertised via children's centres, toddler groups and other activities that nannies might attend?

The duty under the Childcare Act to provide information, advice and training to childcare providers does refer to those providing care (or intending to provide care) in the Authorities' area, rather than those living there - which ties in with the fact that Ofsted registered nannies are registered at their employers' address.

I always feel these events are more aimed at childminders than nannies and I hate the term home carer. One or two of the things I have had invites to have been a bit out of the way to get to as I don't drive but I just don't find the invitations offer much to nannies. i'm glad you enjoyed it Nick.