to feel very sorry for my CM (Ofsted related)

[ScatteredMama82]

My CM is a lady nearing 60. She's been a CM for 30 years. I think, due to ever-increasing paperwork requirements over the last few years she's been struggling with her Ofsted inspections. She got 'needs improvement' end of last year so they came back in the spring and she got 'inadequate'. I'm shocked and think it was very harsh. She's got another inspection this week and she says if it doesn't go well she's giving up. I'm gutted (for her and for my kids - they adore her). She's like their Granny, she does loads of stuff with them and provides excellent, nurturing care. I've written a letter to support her, but having seen her report I'm not sure she's addressed all the things she should have. It's not safety-related, it's more things like 'not assessing learning needs and documenting outcomes and next steps'. That's not what I send my kids there for. I send them there because it's like a home from home where they get cuddles if they need them, she made potty training a breeze as she's done it about a thousand times, she dealt with separation anxiety amazingly well. She just isn't very good at the paperwork side of things! I really hope she gets through the inspection ok.

They used to be two separate things. Childminders and day nurseries were checked by social services and nursery classes in schools were checked by HMIs. It all changed when Nursery Vouchers were introduced in the 90s and playgroups/day nurseries were classed as Education so the government could say every year old had access to Education.

threeyear old that should say.

There should be a place for the type of unstructured, small-scale, home-from-home type care environment which has been proven to be most beneficial for under-3s.

I totally agree. Ofsted totally agrees. But a home-from-home setting can also mean a caring, warm and sensitive practitioner who carefully plans and offers the best possible learning and development experiences for the children in their care. Learning does not have to be formal and that is not what Ofsted is asking for.

It's almost like there needs to be 2 levels of registration (meets EYFS standards/doesn't) and parents can then choose the setting that suits their expectations.
That would be fine if every child was getting the input they needed at home. If a child is regularly getting the opportunity to look at books, paint, explore, dress-up, count and sing then perhaps a parent might be happy with a more relaxed setting that doesn't meet EYFS standards, as all their developmental needs are being met. But that isn't the case for a lot of children, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds. They need to have the best possible experiences in their early years setting, whether that is a childminder setting or a nursery, in order to counteract that disadvantage. The EYFS and inspection framework is the tool to achieve that.

In a two-tier system, which setting would you honestly choose as a new parent? One that meets the standards or one that does not? It is very easy to say 'I would choose my childminder' if you have known her for five years, but if you were using a childminder for the first time and had nothing else to go one - what would you choose? I also think that I can make a guess as to which settings would be more expensive! How would that be fair to parents on a lower income?

By the way, there are still a lot of un-registered childminders operating out there, under the radar, if anyone wants to use one...

Learning does not have to be formal and that is not what Ofsted is asking for. But it is what they are asking for. They are expecting CMs to provide the same framework and assessment as they would receive in a pre-school. Childcare is hard enough to arrange for working families. I can see this scenario ending with a fantastic CM ceasing to operate, and 12 kids being shuffled around in a panic to find an alternative. That is not benefitting anyone.

As a new parent, I would choose the setting that suited my child best. My eldest was the kind of child who settled quickly into a nursery environment. My youngest was not, and for him I would choose a CM who provided a home-from-home setting, just like he has now. If that was on a different tier to the 'EYFS-certified' settings then I would still choose it.

By driving down the number of childminders through this bureaucracy, I think parents on a lower income will find themselves with fewer options so I don't agree that this is benefitting them or their children.

By the way, there are still a lot of un-registered childminders operating out there, under the radar, if anyone wants to use one... and do they have DBS, first aid, safeguarding training, insurance? Who checks that? Not really a sensible solution is it? A two-tier system would discourage the unregulated ones from operating which, again, can only be a good thing.

Well, of course they don't. No one in their right mind should use one, but using an unregulated childminder is the logical endpoint of the 'less red tape' argument. They are available and I am sure that some of them are lovely people, but I wouldn't recommend using one.

The EYFS and the Ofsted inspection system provide both for the safety elements (DBS, first aid, insurance) and the quality elements (qualifications and provision for learning and development) in all early years settings. Parents can get reassurance from all these elements that children are being well provided-for. I honestly believe that a two-tier system would be a retrograde step.

This document is pretty clear that Ofsted encourages providers to try to improve their practice following an inadequate judgement - they don't want there to be fewer childminders any more than you do.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/childcare-the-next-steps-when-a-provider-is-judged-inadequate-or-is-not-complying-with-requirements

I hope that she has engaged with the process or sought support from elsewhere, as it sounds like her heart is in the right place.

How sad for her and you. And esp as she is old school

Nannies don’t have this stress and hassle yet offer the same if not less care the. Many cm

If she doesn't pass perhaps you can employ her as a nanny as part of a nanny share, even under that she could take them to her home sometimes.

So sad

Maybedoctor

I understand your points, but you are entirely missing the point. The moment Ofsted got their teeth into childcare, they drove everything in one headlong rush towards becoming 'mini-school'. We now hear government ministers talking about 2yo's in school without the slightest hint of irony.

The point is that it leaves parents and childcare providers with very little choice. Everyone is effectively bullied into the Ofsted model if they need access to financial help with childcare, childcare insurance, or just to avoid prosecution. That isn’t choice: it’s coercion.

No serious assessment of Ofsted inspections considers them either useful or accurate. They are methodology flawed at the most basic level, yet Ofsted have continually refused to accept even the simplest of tests to check whether or not they might be worth the paper they’re printed on.

When Ofsted took over the regulation of childcare, the number of registered childminders briefing spiked with the promise of a brand new dawn, then rapidly nose-dived, and has been in decline ever since. Nice job, Ofsted.

Fact check...

"She would have been taught how to do this [EYSF progress tracking] during her initial training...."

Not true.... please read the thread. "She's been a CM for 30years" so the likelihood is she was registered under social services and transferred over to Ofsted without all the niceties.

I might ad that I have my local authority's standard 'home based childcare' certificate; level 2 in childcare; and level 3 in children and young people's workforce, and yet I have never once been trained in development records, learning journeys, EY trackers, next steps, wow moments, or whatever this week's buzz-phrase happens to be.

"....there are support networks...." if mine in anything to go by, I can well understand why this woman shuns hers. My monthly 'support meeting' involves a £50 round trip by taxi. Alternatively I could attend my local CMs group which is run as a clique to share out much of the local business.

"Pacey sell ready printed diaries....." .....and they are expensive garbage. Pacey have become obsessed with the 'professionalisation' of childcare, when this means surrendering (sucking up) to Ofsted and government pressure at every turn.

Childminder here 👋🏻👋🏻👋🏻

The load of paperwork we have to do is unbelievable. We have to provide proof of everything, it’s not enough to say we know that little Jane Doe age 3 is doing all she should be doing for her age, we need to provide evidence on how we know this, what we have witnessed, and what can be done next to further encourage development, and what parents feel about this. Just like teachers or nursery staff do. Except we tend to work alone, sometimes for 10+ hours a day, and have our own families to look after. There are times when I have to sacrifice time with my daughter and husband at the weekend to complete work for Ofsted.
I’m only 31, and have only been childminding for 7yrs, but I already know I couldn’t do this for ever. I really sympathise with your CM. Most teachers would have retired by 60, or at least had their work load lightened.

There needs to be a massive over haul in the way Ofsted inspect. They have made some changes which are coming into place shortly, but they won’t help your CM, if anything it will be harder for her to receive an adequate.

However, the other side of the argument is that there are a lot of unregistered and therefore unregulated childminders. There is a big problem in my borough of unregistered childminders, and the council are working so hard to tackle this. One of the things they do is offer free evening and weekend training. Which is absolutely unbelievable. We are so lucky to have access to this. It means any CM in my borough has no excuse.

Your CM, if she wishes to stay open, will need to meet Ofsted standards. As wonderful as she may be, there is no way round it. She should look at advice online if she Google’s ‘preparing for Ofsted inspection’ she should get some tips!

I've had three childminders with my kids. The one with the best paper work and able to show me all of her wonderful ofsted things was also the one we used for the grand total of six weeks because she didn't know how to cope with my eldest.

I do sympathise with her, in the same way I sympathise with lots of other people who have been doing jobs for a long time. The job is no longer what it was when they started and they are being pushed out because of it. Irrespective of how good they are at it.

My DH is a professional driver and he has said the same thing about HGV drivers. The older ones who have done it 30 plus years are all leaving because they can't afford or can't be bothered with doing the now compulsory qualifications.

@itsaboojum
Without outing myself or giving away my whole CV, I really do understand more about this than is possible to convey on a short post on Mumsnet.

Ofsted is not a perfect inspection system, but yes, I do believe that an inspection system is necessary. I also agree with the 'professionalisation' of those who provide early years provision for children. Would you argue that nurses need to be less professional? Or social workers?

You may not like your own local CM network or support meeting, but it doesn't mean that this CM has not been given opportunities to improve her practice. She could have asked another good or outstanding childminder for tips, joined an online early years forum or even just bought a book. What she is being asked to do is not impossible, otherwise the thousands of good and outstanding childminders would not manage it either.

The policy around early years settings has to work in terms of what is best for the overall population of young children, namely high quality settings that provide child-centred learning and development in an age appropriate way for all children from birth to five. This might not be what suits individual childminders or individual parents, but it is best at a population level.

If anything, practice and qualifications across the sector need to be better, not worse, as there is far too much poor provision out there (particularly in disadvantaged areas) which means that children are not getting the start that they deserve.

www.nuffieldfoundation.org/sites/default/files/files/Quality_inequality_childcare_mathers_29_05_14.pdf

@MaybeDoctor are you joking? The early funding is the actual reason why a lot of places are shutting down. There is just not enough funding!!!

"Ofsted is not a perfect inspection system"
Since its inception, the teaching unions, university professors and statistical analysts have asked for simple, double-blind tests of Ofsted inspection results. All that is required is a statistically significant test in which Ofsted can get within a standard variation of producing the same result twice. Ofsted’s utter refusal to cooperate tells you everything there is to know about how truly far they will ever be from anything close to perfection.

THe case for 'professionalism' comes down to how my hype you swallow with the word. There are plenty of nurses, social workers, et al who know full well that the 'professionalism' referred to is little more than veneer, and has little to do with the real job.

"The policy around early years settings has to work in terms of what is best for the overall population of young children...." What you are describing isn’t childcare: it’s social engineering. To some people it will have a chilling feel of Stalinism. The truth is goes back a further century to when the Prussian state decreed that child rearing was far too important to be left to parents.

Even if it were justifiable towards those we patronising call "disadvantaged" that leaves huge swathes of the country’s children stuck with a broken authoritarian system for no good reason.

But all of this rather misses the point that it isn’t doing a lot of good. The much-trumpeted 'quality' and 'training' in Early Years isn’t improving the life chances of thousands of children. Poor families still grow up poor, and the only genuine research indicates that what barely-significant differences made at EY stage are invariably levelled within two years of starting school.

OFSTED is just a paper pushing exercise. Nobody should ever go by the Ofsted rating alone to judge a school. Plenty of London and Birmingham schools have real gang problems (and kids coming to school with weapons) and yet because they have a whole team of admin staff to help push Oftsted they get outstanding results all the time.

Imo (as a teacher, parent and grandparent) schools rated as Outstanding are good at paperwork but not necessarily anything else. I would go for a Good school anytime (to send a child to or work at). Also, the goalposts change - Satisfactory used to mean good enough then it meant not good enough. I don't think it's even a category any more.

I've seen childminders with outstanding Ofsted show up to events, take the requisite number of photos to document their day, and then bugger off after 10 minutes. Documentation proves very little.

Similar situation happened with my mum, who was a carer for the elderly. Suddenly everyone wanted NVQs, which she couldn't pass for love nor money. Utterly dedicated carer, literally won awards, all meaningless without documenting it.

Our CM is on a different arrangement with Ofsted where she’s sort of only semi-registered. I don’t know what it’s called but she has to do DBS check, first aid etc but has none of the inspections and isn’t expected to do the EYFS stuff. Could something like that be an option for your CM?

We chose her cos she’s amazing, and like a lot of people on this thread, thought the relationship and home-from-home was more important than ‘learning outcomes’ in the very early years.

@Rainatnight I think that's only possible when you're only looking after over 5s. The eyfs bit is compulsory when you're looking after under 5s. I'm guessing this is the case with yours and she's only looking after school aged children

MaybeDoctor, you're missing the bigger point. I don't think anybody would object to childminders being inspected for the quality of the general environment, safety, food provided etc. But when you start insisting on learning plans and so on you change the job from one that's primarily care-focused to one that's education-focused. And what most parents want for their very young children is the care-focused setting, not the mini-school. Why should parents be forced to put their child in a more structured environment when what they really want is a granny-type figure, just because they choose to - or have to - go out to work? Especially when there are so many competent childminders fully able and willing to provide that type of care?

I'm a childminder and do absolutely bare minimum paperwork - no planning, written observations or learning journeys or anything like that. I still work 7.30am-6pm every day and struggle to find time for development tracking, funding paperwork, 2 year checks and all the legally required stuff.

Honestly if I was 60 I wouldn't bother trying to get everything in place now, I'd quit.

And I totally agree, Local Authority inspections/support visits once a year checking on safety, cleanliness, interactions, safeguarding knowledge should be sufficient.

@Chocolatedaim thank you, good to have the point of view of someone who actually does the job.

It seems like it didn't go well on Friday, I don't know any more detail and won't until I see her tomorrow. What's the process if she's had 'inadequate' and not managed to improve things? Will she be shut down?