RANT WARNING: Childcare Approval Agency: still haven't approved our nanny

[JenJam]

I sent in our nanny's application at the end of July along with our cheque for £99 which was cashed early by the Childcare Approval agency in August...

...17 weeks later, still no approval or rejection

...just a pathetic "we've escalated your CRB application !!!...it will take 2 weeks until we will hear back from the crim records bureau

That'll be 20 weeks - 5 months to process!

i'm furious that they are so damn slow.

yet they've taken my money for 'administration' and to process the CRB check

and i've had to nudge them all the way to follow up and chase up

And supposedly i'm supposed to do this every 12 months to keep her approved!

Anyone else think this is system is a bureaucracy is crazy?

anyone else in same boat?

i'm spitting, I'm typing so fast

meant to say this is bureaucracy gone mad!

anyone?

i got mine back last friday...

it was my 1st ever application and took less than 4 weeks!

that probabaly not what u wanted to here but thats how it was!

I (or rather my nanny) applied in April and finally got the apporval in October. For us the delay was getting ther face to face appointment to go through the docs - the CRB check was straightforward (but only one name and address tocheck). But getting a face to face appointment was pants. It couldn't be arrnaged over the phone - you had to wait for a letter and if it wasn't a date you could make then you had to wait for the next letter!

It took us months from employing our nanny to getting her approval through - mainly waiting for CRB check (she has had more than one address over recent years). And now our voucher company (ACCOR) have worried our nanny by sending her a letter telling her to start the renewal process early (she's only been approved for about 3 months - surely 9 months early for renewal is not necessary).
We were getting paid with childcare vouchers in the intervening months and ended up with enough vouchers saved to pay her entire salary for 3 months!...but it was getting dicey since we were receiving salary-vouchers and having to pay her entire salary from our bank account for months before hand.
Good luck JenJam - hope it comes through soon.
Someone (?nannynick) said that they are changing the system again soon

Lady muck... the obviously didnt tell her that you dont need to have a fact to face appointment at all

i did mine at the post office for an admin fee of just £5!

only realised this when telling woman on the phone how inconvienient a face to face interview 20 miles away would be when i work mon - fri 8 - 6.... she said... well if u pay £5 it can be dne at the post office...

who look at ceritificates... and look at ID and fill in a form to say they have seen them!

If we had been able to talk to someone on the phone then that would have been a start. Is this something new that they've introduced I wonder? All the documentation I have is very specific about where the interview had to take place.

in future call this number 08457677811

number found when googled child care approval scheme.... but you need to be blunt and ask them to let u do it at post offce... was on phone for nearly 20 mins and onluy at last minute was it revealed to me that i could pay the fee by card over the phone now....

formas arrived within 48 hours... and i took stuff to post office the next day... and paid postoffice £5... that was it... it really was so quick and easy!

in future call this number 08457677811

number found when googled child care approval scheme.... but you need to be blunt and ask them to let u do it at post offce... was on phone for nearly 20 mins and onluy at last minute was it revealed to me that i could pay the fee by card over the phone now....

formas arrived within 48 hours... and i took stuff to post office the next day... and paid office £5... that was it... it really was so quick and easy!

I'm with you. I think the scheme is a scam... But, I'm going to stay away of Jura will come laugh at me.

Scam.... scam scam scam... Oaky, I'm going....

The major delay seems to be with the CRB form being processed. The delay may be with CAS, or with the CRB. Expect that both will blame each other.
Roll on the day that CRB checks can be done on-line, directly with the CRB rather than having to go via somewhere else first (please hurry on getting that set up CRB).

Contact CAS (if you can, they seem to no longer accept e-mail) and ask them for the Disclosure Application number (this was on top left of the form completed), which surely they must have recorded prior to sending the form off to the CRB - well, hey you can hope! Then the applicant (nanny) themselves can call the CRB and chase the application directly, as the CRB will only talk to the applicant (nanny) or to the registered body (CAS).

As it is taking such a long time, lodge a complaint with CAS - will need to be in writing to their registered addrress, and also contact your local MP - so that they can raise the matter with DfES SureStart. With luck, the more problems they are aware of, the less problems there will be once Ofsted take it over from CAS, which may be as early as April 2007 under what is known as the Ofsted Childcare Register (see Childcare Act 2006 for details).

Alright, Jura, you asked so here goes... (and it is not my fault if you can't keep your coffee in your mouth)

I just think it's too much hassle and doesn't really do much. Does it help in the end? Yes it does... a little... a very little. £900 isn't really very much relative to the overall cost of your childcare, is it?

I just find the whole thing so beaurocratic. Why do you have to spend money to get some back? And why does it have to take a chunk out of your pension plan? Why don't they just give you a tax break that would eliminate so much red tape? And how much money is spent on this red tape? Government waste for political gain, that's what it is. No doubt you will soon hear Gordon Brown campaigning on how he has hellped ALL working parent. Eh Gordon? Run the numbers, between you and the nanny there's not left for me. Seems I've done more for you than you have done for me. Twat!

The more difficult they make it the more tempting it is to dabble in a bit of tax evasion (not that I recommend this, but surely it happens more than is admitted on mumsnet).

And if your nanny is foreign, a CRB check is pointless. And, another thing, I not the government bred tape will decide what makes my nanny qualified to look after my kids. I couldn't care less about their silly course (which frankly doesn't qualify someone to look after my kids anyway). I do care about experince with you children (to whom nanny is not related), and I do care if nanny has ever lived in someone elses house.

Shall I go on?

Now, are you sorry you asked?

mmmm... might take you up on the chablis offer.

Or even better, you could show up at the meet-up at Pizza Rustica on 13th.

Oh, I forgot my favourite part and this is the bit that I think really qualifies it as a scam. The same company who decides whether your nanny needs to take the course in order to be qualified, also teaches the course (for a fee). Ain't that convenient? I bet this scheme generate more revenue for them than it saves for parents.

But, as you say, at the end of the day it does save you some money. My gripe is that you have to work so hard and take addition financial sacrifices to get it. Anyway, I'm starting to talk in circles...

Oh well, one day I'll be finished with the nanny and then I can buy hundreds of bottle of chablis every month.

Don't always agree with Uwila on nannies, but defintely here - there are so many easier wasy of helping out with the cost of childcare - this is just so flaming time-consuming and smacks of "nanny state". I had already chosen a qualified childcare provider, and it is ridiculous that it took 6 months for this to be confirmed.

My friend in the states deducts her childcare costs from her salary before her income tax is calculated.... Wouldn't that be nice?!?! When she told me this, my mouth dropped, and I pondered hitting. But, she's preggers so I let it go. Later that day I told my mum, and she said that used to do the same when she sent us to summer camp.

I tell ya, we are taxed too much in this country. And they wonder why women can't afford to go back to work? Some people are so dumb... Gordon Brown comes to mind. (yes, I like to actively campaign against him at every given opportunity)

And ours only took 5 weeks for our nanny.

"Oh, I forgot my favourite part and this is the bit that I think really qualifies it as a scam. The same company who decides whether your nanny needs to take the course in order to be qualified, also teaches the course (for a fee). Ain't that convenient? I bet this scheme generate more revenue for them than it saves for parents"

I don't really understand this. Which company are you talking about Uwila? I thought the Childcare Approval Scheme decided whether your nanny had the right qualifications.

When the scheme first began the approval process was sole sourced to a com[pany called Nestor. As far as I know, it still is. But, I haven't looked at the scheme since it was first announced. So, it may have changed. I did just have a quick look and it appears that other organisation now offer courses. And I'm quite sure that wasn't the case a couple of years ago.

I wonder where that £99 per year goes? To the government, or to their buddies at Nestor? I can't understand why they don't just offer a tax break and skip their silly approval scheme. It seems like such a huge waste of money.

But, as Jura says, it does you save you something and nothing else is on offer for nanny employers.

JenJam - our timings were virtually identical to your ones. Our nanny's approval came through after 16 weeks, having been submitted at the end of July. Once we had complained to the Surestart people at 15 weeks they hassled the CRB, and they were "advised" to sort it out within ten days.

I'm livid that they sat on my £99 from July to November and that I still had to do all the chasing. We've also had vouchers piling up in the Accor bank while having to pay our nanny out of the rest of our salaries. And I'm on SMP at the moment, so it ain't funny having money that we can't use - yes, it is great having three to four months worth of nanny salary now banked up, but that doesn't help us in Sainsbury's at the moment!

I can't believe that we'll have to start it all again in six months time - surely once people have been CRB's once it should take less time for subsequent checks? It's not as though they can go back in time and do something dodgy...

I'm all for nannies having a registration process, as I think that it helps to raise the status of childcare as a profession (think midwives, nurses, teachers, etc...) but the costs of this should not have to be bourne by their hardworking employers! I only pay £30 odd quid a year to remain registered as a teacher, yet more than three times that for my nanny. Hmmmmph.

Annner

I got through the approval for my nanny earlier on this month, her having started in May (most of the delay was getting her on the courses then the police checks here and in NZ - the interview was done quickly, but then we're in London which might help). For those who got vouchers in advance of the approval can I ask how you managed that? To get my vouchers I had to first identify the approved childcarer, so basically had to wait. My company uses Sodexho.