Ofsted Registration - would it be unreasonable to ask my employer to pay for the course to become registered?

[HairyOrk]

I've been a Nanny for about 6 years and know my stuff.
I've never needed to be OFSTED registered before as I've always worked for high net worth families in central london who didn't need/want to claim the vouchers. I'm currently doing a degree in Psychology, have covered several child development modules and also have done a first aid course (though I'll need to redo that soon).

Ofsted registration costs a fortune; £103 registration fee, plus a first aid if you don't already have one at about £100, nanny insurance at £100 per year and then the Core Skills training at £120 (cheapest I can find).

For some reason I agreed to pay half the registration fee when I was offered this new job (local to me, outside of London - family are lovely but on more of a limited budget than my previous ones - though not struggling, I should add ). So already I'm out of pocket to the tune of £50. I also paid my own insurance, £100, and paediatric first aid, £100.
I don't mind paying the first aid as I think it's really important and insurance obviously covers me so I relunctantly am happy to pay that too.
But registration doesn't benefit me in any way and even though I already posess the skills and knowledge to look after children (a la 6 years nannying experience and about 5 additional years of tutoring and babysitting), Ofsted won't register me without this additional course.

I just can't afford to fork out £120 for the course on top of the £50 for the registration fee, £100 for insurance and £100 for first aid. It's going to end up costing me about £370 just to get registered - which is nearly 2 weeks wages.

AIBU to ask the parents to pay for the course? I don't need it, I don't want to do it and it will take me a good day to do as I'll have to travel to London 4 hour round trip to do the 8 hour course.

Plus I'm looking at least £25 to get to London and back.

Wouldnt it help you in the long run?
I am not trying to be pattonizing. It is an honest question.

Patronizing not pattonizing.

I think, if the family won't/can't employ you without this Ofsted registration then you do need it don't you?

My husband gas to pay for membership of a professional body annually to do his job. Literally the only thing he gets from it is that he's employed - it doesn't teach him anything or give him any new skills. He sucks it up, as do people in various professions. I know I had to pay for my own crb checks a few years back.

You could ask your employer to pay I suppose but it sounds like the kind of thing other nannies would already have in place so I imagine they'd be a bit about it.

If you are employed rather than self employed (which as a nanny you would be employed) & your employer wants the registration rather than you then no, it's not unreasonable.

However if at interview the employer said we are only employing someone whose registrations are up to date then that's their prerogative & you either pay for the courses/registrations or don't take the job.

There wasn't really an interview, I did some emergency temp for you and they said that they liked me so much and the help was so invaluable they wanted to make it a regular thing.
So it was never advertised as Ofsted registration.

Yes, I am employed.

And it wouldn't really help me in the long run because this is the last Nanny job I'll do. Several reasons, mainly because its not my career plan and there are no jobs locally - most of the work is in London which is too far away.

And this makes me sound awful, and I don't mean it in a bad way, but there are very very few nannies where we live, it would be incredibly difficult to find a nanny willing to work in such a remote place, with her own car, for this salary and for only 2/3 days a week.

*them not you! doh!

And not all nannies have Ofsted registration, it isn't a requirement. Most of the nannies I know don't.

Well you can ask and see what they say. If they say no, but they say they must have someone Ofsted registered they will find someone - maybe not a nanny but a childminder. They'd just have to make a judgement on whether they'd sooner have you without a registration or someone else with a registration if they don't want to pay (or can't pay).

I don't think you'd be out of order to ask, but I also don't think it'd be out of order for them to say no either.

It seems that who pays for the registration is contractual, there are arguments on both sides. And ot turns out that it has tax implications for the employers: www.nannyinsure.co.uk/index.php/faqs/ofsted

You can do the common core skills course online - so that would save you train fares to/from London;

www.mnttraining.co.uk/training/childcare_approval/index.htm

If they require it they should paye. If they don't then why should they paye? You dont need to be ofsted registered unless the family qualify for the coupons.

It's a bit awkward given you've already started but why not acknowledge that but say you hadn't realised the full costs and would they be open to sharing it with you, as you've set out here?

My nanny will pay her own insurance. I will pay her Ofsted and first aid course cost, but she'll do the course on her own time. Seemed a reasonable compromise but I'm sure different people do it differently!

I've told our nanny that I'll pay for her registration but I have to admit I didn't realise it was an annual fee. Despite that, I still think I'll pay it as it is is that benefits from it not her.

Id try lighttripper's advice if I was you. Just say you didn't realise how expensive it was and could they pay it?

I did the common skills course before I was employed as a nanny so I paid for that, and my DBS check. But my employer pays for the annual renewal fee each year as it only benefits her, not me. My boss also pays for my insurance but I pay for my first aid.
Hope you can get it sorted :)