Latest Ofsted attack on childminders

[Italiana]

Susan Gregory Ofsted General Director for Education and Early Years has made some very unwelcome comments on c/ms in this short video

The post is in nCMA Local Conversation (Childcare in Politics)...please read the blog and add your comments there if you can
NCMA has been asked to respond to these sweeping comments

www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/ofsted-annual-report-201112-susan-gregory-national-director-education-and-early-years-introduces-ear

I teach part time and I work part-time in the policy and communication field in house for a national organisation and for my own consultancy. I'm not saying more in case MN jump on me for advertising because its in the childcare and education sector!

What am I doing here? I was a nanny and this was my first section on MN, the organisation I work for is directly related to this section and I employ a home based childcarer. This thread is particularly interesting as it ticks both my policy and my communication boxes.

Well it feels like a complete stab in the back for her to make such a sweeping generalisation about childminders/childminding. She should have had the decent honesty to at least acknowledge all the outstanding childminding practice that her inspectors themselves have witnessed and reported.
Another reason for me to want to be deregulated.
I do not want to be associated with Ofsted at all. I want to set my own curriculum and for parents to judge quality for themselves. By all means check my suitability, CRB, premises, but other than that I now have a vote of complete no confidence in Ofsted.

Why not? if c/ms are to give each other peer support and share information then we need something 'exclusive' to us IMHO...this forum includes parents but there is a need for something just for us at a professional level

See NCMA's response to Gregory's statement in Nursery World...links perfectly to Wilshaw's comments earlier in the year...some saw it coming

www.nurseryworld.co.uk/news/rss/1162316/Childminders-fight-back-Ofsted-claims/

Seeing as neither mra (IIRC) nor myself use a CM, and therefore don't respond on those fora primarily as parents but as professionals in overlapping areas - although I can only speak for myself but going by his general form on here I can assume - giving advice on our areas of competence, I have certainly in the past been welcome. Sometimes an external perspective from those who understand the challenges CMs face without actually being one is useful and appreciated. I certainly don't turn down free advice on aspects of running my business just because they're not in the same field.

A platform just for CMs would be NCMA local, no?

But my origanum point was that you can't police who signs up to something on the Internet. And now when I do sign up I'll have outed myself on here and need to think up something else for there. Bummer.

' platform just for CMs would be NCMA local, no?'

They let nannies in as well

No I don't use a childminder any more so don't have a vested interest as a parent.

I joined the now pink forum owned by the online dating man some time ago; I'm not sure I will be able to be there much longer. I am a member of the new blue one and hope to be able to help people out with accurate, reliable and up to date information on there as I do here and elsewhere.

As Fraktion says it is not feasible to have a free forum that is only for a particular (large) group of people - if you want to have a confidential conversation, don't do it on the internet!

NCMA Local is a bit of a paradox - the messages are displayed openly on the internet, complete with full names (which members are encouraged to use on sign up) and could not be less private, but in order to join you have to be either an NCMA member (which could be a nanny, or from next year a pre-school worker) OR Ofsted (or presumably CSSIW) registered.

I am not sure why people want 'EVERY FORUM' to be open to all, surely Facebook can fill that void?....do you think that registered nurses would want c/ms in their forum if they had one? I doubt it...why do c/ms always have to be diluted???

I belong to 3 fora and I really would like one just for c/ms...what is wrong with that?
At the moment I participate in those 3 because of the present situation as I want to hear from all c/ms
NCMA local is for members but I feel has a different flavour because it is interactive with NCMA Board, the IT team staff who post all the time etc and each post is moderated....I also 'feel' that someone in NCMA Local reads Mumsnet judging by the questions put there...maybe the same thing happens here?
I was not aware that posts are displayed on the website so I will look into that later as their terms and conditions say you are not allowed to
post other views' without the author's permission...you always drop a bombshell Mr Anchovy...could you expand!!!

here I welcome parents' views but I want to discuss and share info on 'aspects of our work' such as baurocracy, networks, peer support, good practice with colleagues which Susan Gregory said we are unable to do (what a load of rubbish!!!) which may not be of interest to parents

Despite the consistent undermining of c/ms and latest attack I have not seen an 'army' of parents coming out in our defence...sad for those parents who choose c/ms now when their choice will not be available in future and will get c/ms allocated to them by a possible 'agency'

Mr Anchovy The blue forum is described as being set up by c/ms for c/ms so I am not sure why you are a member (nothing against you I assure you), it also allows one blog to be moderated by the authorso I am confused as I thought it was going to be something different, maybe those who administer will explain
Also you have posted your reply to Gregory there but not here...why?

Lets get on today hoping we do not have another negative swipe at c/ms by whoever feels like adding insult to injury

Oh I can see everything on NCMA local! Or at least I assume it's everything but I can certainly see a lot...however I can't post because I'm not currently OFSTED registered. If this isn't supposed to be the case someone might want to tell NCMA tech to sort it.

Most people, unless they have an interest, wouldn't go on fora like that and even then people use different places for different things. Here is great for more blue-sky thinking and discussion without it necessarily being construed as advice. I like to post what ifs and speculation, engage in debate and bounce ideas around I will also give advice from a nanny or parent perspective when appropriate. Other places have more of an information and support slant and I don't think I ever mentioned being a nanny and may not have even mentioned DS.

BAPN is 'by nannies for nannies' but I'm certain they have other people working with them, unless one of their members is a very competent web designed and another an HR professional.... Being set up by and directed by a particular sector doesn't make it exclusive. You would need to set out membership requirements for that, which is difficult to police on the Internet, or accept that you're limiting your audience.

Aside from that there is a hugely negative message coming out from a forum which says 'this is for CMs only - everyone else KEEP OUT'. From a PR perspective you're shooting yourselves in the foot even if it does improve your practice and CMs really don't need any more bad PR coming their way after this latest bit of propaganda.

Thank you Fraktion
Not being an expert in these things I find this disturbing
How can you see the posts unless you log in as member? where do you see them?
If I want to find out I need to know where people are accessing the info...mind you it rings a bell with something tha happened a while back
Lets see what they say

Well currently the robots are down but normally I can just go to the site and see all the discussions.

Try logging out and just viewing the site.

At the moment I get a critical error if I just type in www.ncmalocal.com

Thanks again Fraktion
Yes I have just spoken to the IT Team and it is confirmed everyone can see the posts but, unless registered, one cannot reply.

I don't understand why there's the need for a 'closed' CM forum.

Anyone can join the TES forum, and from what I can see, anyone can join and post on doctors.net.uk

Why should childminders be different? Making the forum closed would then prevent prospective minders joining and getting some really great advice.

It's like people without children getting moaned at for using MN, because it's called MUMSnet.

I think there is a huge difference between providing education and providing childcare. Having used a range of both nurseries and childminders, I feel that each type of childcare provider provides a different experience. It is stupid to use the same criteria in assessing a childminder as in assessing a nursery.

My personal opinon is that babies do better with a childminder, but older children enjoy going to nursery. I imagine it would work well to have an older child attend nursery/ pre school in the morning and be picked up by a childminder.

I think its a backwards step for childminders to be deregulated. However it is questionable whether OFSTED is the right body to regulate childminders.

Mr Anchovy The blue forum is described as being set up by c/ms for c/ms so I am not sure why you are a member

The now pink forum was originally set up by CMs for CMs but I was a member there too.

I think they may have a section which is 'invite only' for people they know to be childminders, but this is very difficult to police.

Also you have posted your reply to Gregory there but not here...why?

That's not my reply, its a draft which I wanted some feedback/support on before I send it but...
i) because you have to log in to see it on the blue forum and I don't want the draft version published to the whole internet
ii) because you can't attach files on Mumsnet
iii) because posting a link to it would be against Mumsnet rules (hi Justine )

I am not sure why people want 'EVERY FORUM' to be open to all, surely Facebook can fill that void?

It's not a matter of wanting forums* to have open membership, its just that it is impractical to have a forum which is published on the internet which is closed unless you have an existing membership structure in place to validate the identity of people who claim to be eligible for membership.

.

• forum is an English word meaning a group of people who discuss things; it is distinct from the Latin word forum meaning a open space in a town.

Thank you Mr Anchovy
I apologise as I framed the question very badly
I was trying to find out about security having discovered that Local can be seen by all but people cannot post unless they are members (had a bit of a nasty experience there a while back!!)

I understand the rules now...I think!!

Sorry to disagree but 'forum' is not an english word, it comes from latin = public place and relates to 'foris' = outside. It is also a meeting or assembly for open discussion or a medium for open discussions such as this one???
The plural is fora...just remembering the little latin I learnt at my 'roman' school!

Why do childminders need an exclusive forum? What are you going to post there that can't be viewed by non-childminders? You're making it sound like fight club ffs.

Why not welcome advice and input regardless of who it comes from?

The plural form is a matter of contention between academics. Sike will argue that a forum is a virtual Internet place, others say an agora is a more appropriate term because it isn't physical and still more argue that as a loan word it has been anglicised and should be pluralised as such.

Sorry Fraktion but an agora is a market place in Athens used for meetings or gathering..related to a forum except the roman I don't thin met in market places?

I think that in English you say stadium or stadia for plural, medium and media for plural...so why the exception for forum and fora?
Do all languages have to be anglicised all the times?

There are lots of open fora so why not one for c/ms...I think you are missing the point and the swearing does not help..has everything got to be public?
I posted the question to find out what people thought and got my answer...thank you

The plural form is a matter of contention between academics.

Not any more I think - I don't have an OED to hand but this is from the same source.

Happy to continue this in the right place, although once you're in there you never get out

Do all languages have to be anglicised all the times?

No, that's the beauty of English - so whilst newspapers, radio and television are media, people who hold seances are mediums.

Agora has been used in a different sense for quite some time. There's a very interesting read called 'World Wide Agora' which picks up on the idea of free exchange between common people' and I first came across the term in a book introducing web theory which proposes that the web is a virtual agora (derived from the generic Greek for public open space/meeting place and not THE one in Athens). The non-physical bit IIRC comes from the same reasoning which gives us agoraphobia.

I'm not saying I buy it, just that the people aren't necessarily in agreement over the word forum or its plural forms.

mra I stay away from PC for that precise reason. I've wasted too much time in there!