EYFS - can I have some specific queries/problems

[KatyMac]

Thanks

I have to talk about it & I don't want to look a pratt

I really don't want general 'I don't like/want it' but actual specific you are concerned about

TIA

on the medication front, can we still apply nappy cream to sore bottoms or do we have to send them home? is sudocreme going to come with prescrption details on it? and ditto for other as and when medication. i fully apreciate the calpol issue and don't use it anyway but i do use nappy cream provided by the parents for their child, and teething gel etc. am i missing something here?

oh and observation records? do i just keep doing their daily diary or is more needed? if so where do i get them from or what should be in them?

and () planning documents, is there going to be a standard form or do i just make one up?

ps katy, good thread will watch with avengence!

Thanks EM - I had forgotten Medication

I also have
Registering as a food premises
Written risk assessments
My particular situation
Observations

I am feeling quite nervous

Bump

Getting a bit scared nervous now

do we seriously have to do written risk assessmnts for EVERY outing we make? Can we not just make them in our mind as we get there?

What do we do with the portfolio of work/obs that we have done for each child?

Do they stay with us when the child moves on?

Do we give a copy annually to the parents?

Will you feed back to us, Katy, please ?

P.51, second bullet point.
Wording is open to misinterpretation and not as clear as the old standards which clearly referred to 10 sessions weekly.

The new wording says a child can be classed as over five if they only attend the setting "before and/or after a normal school day". This is being taken to mean a normal school day for that class. Which for my local reception class is 9-12 noon for the first half term. Under that interpretation I could collect a "young child" (or up to 3 young children)at 12 noon along with 3 under fives without a variation. But I suspect the term "normal school day" was intended to refer to the class hours of the majority of the school?

Ok ignore that. The glossary describes a school day as "two sessions with a break in teh middle of the day between those sessions." P54

P.29 Providers must obtain an enhanced CRB disclosure.

On 7 Jan 2005, Ofsted told me that they would implement a rolling programme to include all existing Registered Childminders on the new system. In Mar 2006 they said they hadn't started yet, but definitely going to happen.

Has it even started yet?

Do you have any links with your Early Years Development people?

Gee thanks

I'll do my best

Ok got an update from Ofsted on the CRBs. Only new childminders and staff need an enhanced CRB. Those of us who went through the old system don't need a new CRB.

Seems the conclusion was that Ofsted's "ongoing monitoring programme is a better way of ensuring that persons continue to be suitable for registration as a childcare provider, than routinely repeating CRB checks for all providers."

Wonder if someone added up what it would actually cost!

So there is no documentation available to us to prove we had a CRB at all, except the registration certificate. (Which wasn't enough for one parent I met).

Ayla I have no offical documentation either, which has worried parents before, if they are not going to issue us 'oldies' that had them done as the old police checks then surely they can issue us with a cover note sort of thing stating we have had them done.

No answers ladies - just more questions tbh

Observations. Yes I do some - as in I note in childs diary that 'xx managed to thread button today, will try beads another time' type thing, but am not sure about the EYFS ones, on my course the NCMA woman was rather vague when someone asked how often we should be doing them, eventually she suggested once a month, yet on a recent MN thread I saw someone had been told once a week!

Also I care for a few ad-hoc occasional children who yes, age-wise will come under EYFS, but I am not fancying doing all the paperwork for them when some of them only come once a month!! I am planning two registers, one for the 2 children who come to me two or three days a week and the one school run mindee, and another register for the 3 other families who use me occasionally. Thinking that Ofsted will look at my 'offical' one and only want to see EYFS paperwork for the 2 regular children. Do you think that's ok?

The food premises thing scares me. In recent Child Care mag it said about cms having to register and that they will be classed as low risk so will only be inspected once every 5 years - INSPECTED??? So we have the food hygiene people to please as well as Ofsted??!!

Our recent local NCMA newsletter said we have to keep all food receipts now, even if under £10 which we wouldn't have normally kept for accounts, so we can trace where food came from, with a proviso that it is up to us how long we keep the receipts for - I guess they mean until the food has been eaten and the child hasn't gone down with food poisoning. I'm thinking I'll just keep everything as I've hardly got time to know which tin of beans was bought when and which receipt it was on etc. Madness.

Interesting about only coming to the setting before and after school day being classed as over 5. My 3.5yo goes for a whole day to pre-school one of the days with me, and the other two days are mornings at mo but likely to turn into full days over next 6-9 months to prepare her for school next year, so hurrah, shorter time under EYFS for her! I don't have her or brother much in hols as grandma works in a school so she tends to have them in hols!

Risk assessments. I have one short one I do each morning (i.e. tick boxes for things like 'safety gates in place' and 'fire blanket available') but doing one for each outing is mad - we will drown in paperwork.......

I visit tick sheets for each outing/place I visit as I quite often visit the same places the risk doesn,t generally change. but the children I take do change therefore thier needs such as nappys, pota do.And if I attend a park and there is rubbish or bottles etc I record it and report it to the local council, who will send an email to confirm it is reported this I keep as a record aswell. I am not sure how to attach documents to this board but if you would like a copy of my outings risk assessments please let me know.

The food hygiene is nothing to do with EYFS - EYFS just says you should be aware of current legislation and makes no specific requirements to register with anyone. But the food hygiene law Jan 06 brought in a legal requirement for childminders to register with local authority.

Shoshe - Ofsted's opinion is that the registration certificate should be sufficient for parents as its impossible to get one without successful CRB. They say its not necessary to renew because they consider their checks sufficient. However, I'm led to elieve there are plans to change it. At the moment we can have unlimited subsidised CRBs for relatives, assistants etc which obviously has cost implications. I may be totally wrong but my suspicion is that when/after they remove or reduce the subsidies and we have to pay for it our selves they will bring in a requirement to renew it periodically. Because the cost to CRB all existing childminders would be huge.

AmandaG - the EYFS has been changed so you no longer HAVE to do written risk assessment for each trip/journey. the requirement is now to have an assessment for each TYPE of outing which you can refer to when you go out but you don't have to write it down each time. but if you choose to carry out what you're doing then I think it will go down well with Ofsted - its by going the extra mile and exceeding the requirements you stand a chance of a better grade at inspection.

EYFS was last amended in May www.teachernet.gov.uk/eyfs but I hear there'll be another revision around July. Hopefully the child ratios will be sorted by then.

There is nothing in EYFS that I can see that dicates how often you should do OBS. We still have the freedom to choose how to put it into practice. Personally I'm going to have problems with an after school reception child who are often only here long enough to eat a snack! But I suspect that if I've got enough to show Ofsted about the children who are here all day I should be okay. I suspect it will be similar to the way they do it now - if you give a good impression and they think you're competent they'll just have a cursory glance through one child's file picked at random. If there's been a complaint, you're new or there's something they don't like they'll go through your stuff and quiz you more thoroughly.

I do two registers as well. I shall probably not mention my ad-hoc register unless asked. In the past I've talked about those who have contracts and just mentioned that others book me "from time to time". Which is quite true but its the contracted long-term children that are of more interest to Ofsted at present.

With EYFS though, there is an emphasis on working with other childcare providers - if a child only comes to you (and others) occasionally it might be viewed that it is more important to look at EYFS carefully with these children as its possible that otherwise NO-ONE would be doing it. Which is not the end of the world - IMO - no different from those children who do not go to any form of childcare and stay with their parents.