Nannies & Childminders - Ofsted is checking First Aid Certificates

[nannynick]

In my post this morning I got a letter from Ofsted. They appear to be checking First Aid Certificates of those people registered on the Childcare Register, where Ofsted has not seen the certificate first-hand. Therefore if your First Aid certificate has not been seen by a Childcare Inspector, then do expect to get a letter. The letter gives you 10 working days to send them a copy of your certificate - they do include a pre-paid envelope.

Paragraph 62 of the Bichard Inquiry Report is also important, with regard to how these various childcare registers have come about. Paragraph 62 refers to the establishment of an ID card system for all those people who work with children (this I believe is beginning to be implemented as of October this year, under the ISA scheme]].)

does anyone know where this is all going?
It looks to me as though it is heading in the direction of having a register of EVERYONE who works with children (this will be administered by the ISA) and for 'regulated activities' there will be additional requirements that need to be met (thus Ofsted inspections).
Will Ofsted ever have the power to say what happens in a private home where a child is cared for by a nanny... I don't know. They are certainly looking at getting close to that, but I don't think our current Labour government would go that far - could be a big vote loser.

Nannynick. thanks again so much. i wont not comply but i didnt think that a visitation or inspection was one ofthe requirements for a nanny. it is all a bit odd. i dont want to make life hard for my nanny but sh does work for another family too so it shouldnt all be about my house i guess it should be about her as a nanny. that is where i think it gets tricky.

Ofsted's ability to inspect home childcarers is mentioned in the Guide to Registration documents. Looking back, it was mentioned in the April 2007 version (Ofsted doc reference: 070052) and is found on page 22 of the current Guide to Registration on the Childcare Register document.
So you and your nanny should have been aware that an inspection is possible. As your nanny works at more than one location, assuming both families are using Childcare Vouchers/Tax Credits then Ofsted could in theory inspect at both locations.
Yes the inspection appears to me to be more about the nannies suitability, than the environment in which they work - as the nanny may not have much control over that environment.

Nick, thank you so much for the replies and information in links provided here (sorry; have just come back to this thread!!!)

I would be extremely unhappy were an OFSTED insector ask to be in my home, as (by definition, when our nanny is in charge!!) I will not be at home.

A lot of the questions asked, i.e. about activities, child-proofing, food, etc. are beyond the scope of the nanny, anyway, and are down to our preferences/ suggestions as parents.

It raises serious questions, not least a blurring of the differences between nannies and childminders. Surely the vast majority of the questions are more appropriately put to the parents, in which case we are looking at OFSTED inspecting our parenting, via the arrangements for when we are at work. I'm not comfortable with this. It is one thing to register as a childminder and to set your home up as your business premises. It is quite another to have your home inspected on terms which are not your own.

Also, we are in a nanny share, and so at some point at least one of the children involved is going to be in the other family's home. My nanny is fantastic, but hasn't quite mastered the "sawing the lady in two " trick just yet... Which home is inspected?

Final question... What insurance? Where on earth would be get it from? What is it called?

Once again I will ask: how on earth does this specifically contribute to protecting children? Unless there are visible instruments of torture around the home, crates of Fruit Shoots and a MaccyD's delivery van, OFSTED must be aware that everyone will say what they want to hear?

I am thinking about writing to my MP about this. Enough is enough. (Sounding like a Daily Mail reader!)

Also, in the hypothesis outlined by Nick above, a Nanny whose family refused entry to OFSTED could potentially find herself struck off the register through no fault of her own. She can hardly oblige her employer to let a complete stranger into their home to comment on their furniture and absence of padded helmets for use in the garden. Very worrying. What on earth does a home visit add to a telephone interview in terms of the questions? Apart from lots of money that we parents will end up paying for in increased registration costs.

Interesting questions, not sure you will find any answers to them though.

Ofsted send a letter out to the homeowner/occupier, which has to be signed by the homeowner/occupier to enable them to have access. In the case of a nanny share, I guess Ofsted will send that letter to whichever address the nanny has notified Ofsted is their main place of work.

Insurance:
Nanny insurance is available from Morton Michel - this should be paid for by your nanny.
Employers insurance is usually part of your home insurance.

The First Aid Certificate sage just gets better.

OFSTED called our nanny yesterday and admitted that it was highly probably that THEY were the ones who had lost her certificate! So when she sends them the copy of her replacement, she also has to send the invoice so that they can reimburse her.

Joking apart, if they can't keep track of the paperwork, all the systems in the world are not going to protect children. Which, after all, is meant to be what they are FOR.

Nannynick, you are marvellous - that's a general and continuing observation, not just about this

One of the reasons for this First Aid cert flurry (I think I picked this up on Nannyjob too) is that, when an applying nanny takes her stuff to the Post Office to be checked - I think this is the 'Veri-fy' stage - although the instructions say "take your First Aid cert", and an organised nanny (like ours) will do so, there is no-where on the form for the PO person to confirm they've seen it (although there are boxes to tick for other stuff). Hence Ofsted haven't got a record.

So part of this is just completely crap process design. (Accor, who do dh's vouchers, are in process of formally collecting feedback from parents on the working of the Ofsted system, and have we contributed!! Oh yes)

PS I'm about to send off "within 10 working days or else" a copy of our nanny's First Aid cert for exactly the reason above.

Oh blimey. Even better! So OFSTED never even had the darn thing in the first place!!! We couldn't remember whether she had sent it or whether she had done Check and Send elsewhere. Marvellous. However, she is still going to claim her £7.50, seeing as they have offered.

I can't wait for ACCOR to ask us what we think about it all. A huge jumble, from start to finish.

I'm going to cut & paste an email I sent dh to feed in to his HR people ... see below. "Z" is our nanny.

"Not surprised hundreds of parents are having similar problems.

Executive summary

Where we are is: Z is progressing through the system and though we don't expect any more hitches we have no idea when her approval/registration will eventually come through. [Ironic update! This was sent before the First Aid cert thing]

Detail

1. Z put in her registration application form months ago and it has been logged into the Ofsted system.

1. It is only after your registration application form has been lodged that you are sent a further application form (for a new CRB disclosure to accompany your registration).

1. CRB disclosure application form arrived, Z filled it in; then sent to Ofsted (also months ago).

1. It is only after your CRB disclosure application has been lodged that you are sent an invoice for the relevant fee (as it varies according to what sort of application you are making).

1. CRB disclosure application was logged with Ofsted, but Z did not receive the invoice, and phoned for it a dozen times (as we couldn't pay without it as needed the payment amount details).

1. Z then got a letter saying "as you have not paid the amount of X [specifying the amount, at last] we cannot progress your application".

1. Against that letter, with the amount finally specified! we were able to pay. That is DONE and Z has been sent a receipt.

1. However, at the very same time the receipt was being sent, Z's CRB disclosure application was sent back to her (by a different team from the payment receipt team, presumably) saying "we can't progress your application as you haven't paid so here are your documents back".

1. I made a fierce phone call about this and was told to resubmit the CRB disclosure application to Ofsted, with a covering letter saying "returned in error as we have PAID, thank you". The person on call confirmed expressly that receipt is indeed logged and there is nothing further to pay.

10. CRB disclosure application materials have accordingly been resubmitted to Ofsted and Z is now progressing through the system.

(I've left out the bit about how the first response to Z's initial application was to send her not the CRB form, but a different, blank, registration application form instead. That took sorting out as well.)"

[quote]A lot of the questions asked, i.e. about activities, child-proofing, food, etc. are beyond the scope of the nanny, anyway, and are down to our preferences/ suggestions as parents.......
......Surely the vast majority of the questions are more appropriately put to the parents, in which case we are looking at OFSTED inspecting our parenting -snip-[/quote]

Well said, Annner!
When you look at it like that, isn't it just so intrusive?

This thread has highlighted for me how silly the whole Ofsted for Nannies malarky is. They really are asking to inspect how we live our lives at home - as Annner said, the safety precautions people choose to fit in their own houses are not the responsibility of the nanny. If there was something glaringly obvious a Nanny might make a suggestion but does the government really think that people are too stupid to look after themselves and their own children in their own homes?

Incidentally I used the Veri-fy service but I hadn't noticed that they'd missed off a box for First Aid Certificate. It was in the list of "we need to see (was it four?) of the following to approve your registration" bumph and I just took everything en masse to the post office and let the man tick all the boxes. I wasn't offended to get the letter asking for a copy of my cert as it's still in date and was easily enough done, however, my insurance is about to lapse and I've been wondering whether or not to renew (if only the car hadn't cost us £500 this month I wouldn't have thought twice).

I also had something similar to Z while trying to get registered, things took so long with forms being returned to me, not progressing as I had to wait until they sent me demands for money and then ANOTHER form etc etc. I think it took over 4 months to register and I felt like the biggest idiot on earth. I'm sure my boss didn't believe all the to-ing and fro-ing and thought I'd just forgotten it or done something wrong. I thought our case was unusual - I'm tempted to send her a link to this!

Oh bother.

Quotation FAIL!

Just like to add on to this thread, I wroteon the 19th January stating I received letter from Ofsted about my 1st Aid certificate - I have just got another one through the post saying they wrote in January and haven't received my photocoy and if they don't get it in next 10 days won't process my registration!! Exactly what have they been doing for the last 5 months???? I have a letter saying I'm on the register but now they seem to be saying they are still processing my application - its sooooo ridiculous!!!!!

They are asking staff at pre-schools what qualifications they have and they need copies of certificates for Level 2 and 3 and also the first aid certificates.
Its accross the board.

For anyone who needs to update their First Aid certificates, I run Early Years First Aid courses in Balham SW12 as well as numerous other first aid courses, scheduled from my home or from yours. Please call me on 0208 675 4036 or e-mail [email protected] www.firstaidforlife.org.uk