Nanny quals to satisfy Ofsted

[timeforteaagain]

I am very confused by the ofsted requirements for the voluntary register. I have interviewed a nanny with a City and Guilds (level 3??) in Family and Community Care awarded in the 1990s. I would like to get her ofsted registered. Ofsted quals finder page suggests that this course is not adequate and the nanny would need to complete a Level 3 diploma for the children and young people workforce. This course looks like it would take a year to complete, not helpful for imminent ofsted registration.

However, the nanny has said she could do just a common core skills and knowledge awareness course for £55 (expecting me to pay!!) to satisfy ofsted. Looking at this it seems like a refresher yet I am not sure if she has done core skills before but they also do a common core skills and knowledge training course for £150 which sounds more like a training course.

So I have the ofsted web stating a year course and the nanny suggesting an awareness option but surely a minimum would be the CCS training at least, but neither CCS feature on ofsted for her current qual. BTW I have emailed ofsted who were useless in their response! Help!!

I think qualifications are not necessarily relevant if the nanny has sufficient experience see here.

And why the query about paying -it is not unusual for employer to meet part or all costs for ofsted registration as it is something that usually the employer wants .

employers normally pay for everything to do with the nanny being Ofsted registered, this is as it is no benefit to the nanny to be Ofsted reg,we do not get any tax benefits and if anything its a pain when being paid as can be paid as 3 sums - from mum , dad and balance

only thing employers dont pay for is insurance - all nannies should have this anyway

She can do the common core awareness if you don't mind it being an exercise in box ticking. She has a qualification and it's the safeguarding component which really needs updating. I assume it's the MNT one.

As for who pays there are 2 schools of thought. I personally am in the camp which says if you hire someone based on the qualifications they have and then require them to do extra you should pay. As you haven't hired you could make the additional training a condition before starting and it's then their choice whether to do it or not.

Can you link to the quals finder page where it says a 1 year course has to be done?

The common core course I did was around £150 and I wouldn't call it a course, more a booklet to read and fill in, then send off for marking. Nothing like a college course in my view.

If you need a registered nanny could you hire someone else who is already registered?

Whilst being Ofsted registered is of benefit to parents , not the nanny, I would argue that it is of benefit to a nanny in this case as withoyt being registered they don't get the job.
As a nanny I pay my costs of registration - but then I'm a bit odd

With regards to who should pay I would look at it like this;

If Ofsted were happy with the qualification and experience that she has, would you employ her without asking her to do any further qualifications?

If the answer is yes, then you should pay as the ONLY reason you are asking her to do it is so that you can save money by using childcare vouchers. The financial benefit is all yours and so it's fair that you meet the additional costs.

If the answer is no and you feel that regardless of what Ofsted think you don't feel she is qualified/experienced enough to care for your children then I think it's fair to ask her to train to meet your requirements or to look for a more qualified/experienced nanny.

Nannynick, the link is below (I hope).
www.education.gov.uk/eypqd/qualification-detail-883
This details an additional qual is required and when I have researched that, it seems to be a year duration. It doesn't state that a common core skills course is all that is required. So not sure what is the right option.

As for paying for such courses, the advert for the post stated 'an ofsted registered or registerable nanny' so we expected to have applicants who were met the ofsted criteria. I am happy to pay for the application fee but don't necessarily feel I should pay for her costs to do additional training which does also benefit her CV. This will always be a contentious issue.

HolyBrrrBatman has also made a a fair point above that despite ofsted criteria, this highlights that she has done no further training since the 1990s so is unlikely to be current and may not be the best candidate - food for thought, thank you.

MNTtraining offer a common core skills course. I completed it in one night and it was fine for Ofsted registration.

I'm also of the school of thought that you should pay. You want the additional work then you should pay for it and also Ofsted. I say that as somebody who paid for their own Ofsted too!

"this highlights that she has done no further training since the 1990s so is unlikely to be current" I disagree with this, there are loads of training courses and CPD courses that wouldn't improve her eligibility for ofsted.

That link is not relevent to the requirements for the volutary register.

I can understand why you are confused, Ofsted have never been very clear on this and given recent budget cuts and some organisations ceasing to exist (in particular the Children's Workforce Development Council, whose work is now undertaken buy the DfE) there is even more of a void.

What you need to look at for nannies is here. There has been some confusion over which bits apply to nannies (i.e. home childcarers registered on the voluntary part of the register) so I produced an annotated version to clarify it. I'm not allowed to post a link here, but if you google "mranchovy nanny requirements" you should find it

As you can see from that document the requirment for a nanny is "training in the core skills as set out in the document 'common core of skills and knowledge for the children?s workforce'". No list of qualifications that satisfy this is available, but in reality most childcare training can be mapped to the requirements and demonstrated to fulfill them. The most certain way though is to complete an online course such as that provided by MNT.