Ofsted Nanny.. but no childcare qualification... ? Is this possible ??

[lahm]

Hello, I would greatly appreciate some advice on this.. I've met an Ofsted registered nanny (have seen her certificate), but she doesnt actually have a childcare qualification. When I asked her how she had been able to become registered without a childcare qualification she said she didnt know and that her previous employer had dealt with it all for her. I'm really confused, as I always thought that in order to be Ofsted registered, a childcare qualification was a must.
Can anyone shed some light on this please?
Thanks so much

Theoretically it doesn't BoffinMum - although it probably should and you could apply to OFSTED for equivalency but AFAIK it doesn't cover all the Common Core.

Thanks Frannikin. Just wondered.

Qualifications should be a must for younger childcarers or nannys if they have not had much experience of caring for children 24/7.
But also people should not discount people who don't have reams of qualifications if they are older and have brought up their own children.
Just because someone has loads of qualifications it does not mean anything if they don't "click"
Our pre-school has a leader who has qualifications coming out of her ears and is doing the foundation degree, but i've noticed that no children go to her if they are hurt.
Any new people we look to recruit are invited in to spend a couple of sessions with the children to see how they interact with the kids before we even do an interview and so far it has been a good way of weeding out the ones who would not be any good (for the children).
The OP does need to check this nannys experience or just give her a few days suppervised settling in to see how she copes.
Good luck

I think there's a lot in that, Ripeberry. I worked in a nursery a long time ago, and where most of us were popular with the kids, the manager was a bit cold and formal with them. I didn't have qualifications at the time but I would hazard I did better with them than she did (being a mum helped, I think).

I'm an ofsted registered nanny with no childcare specific qualifications on my cv. But I have done the common core skills. I don't put it down as a qualification though as I think it's stretching the truth and could mislead less well informed parents. The course was a complete waste of time - it's common sense and that isn't a qualification. Could this have happened to your nanny?

Either way you could still hire her but make her do the course so that her registration is legit?

It is true i feel, as kids gravitate to people who love children. We have had a trainee in for the last few weeks and all the kids just glue themselves to her and want them to play with her, but as i mentioned before not one goes to the playleader.

Duh! "want her to play with them"!

hi navyeyelasH.. thanks for your post. I've spoken with the nanny again and she definitely hasnt done a course. She has loads of experience including working as a teaching assistant and her previous employer thought this was enough to fill in the form for Ofsted. I havent called Ofsted as I think I have the answer now ! Whilst I feel she is a very able nanny and I agree with Ripeberrys post as I also feel qualificaitons are not the be all and end all.. however it is a requirement for Ofsted to have either qualification or common core skills and if she was inspected she could have her registration revoked and then that would leave me in a very difficult position.
She also doesnt have insurance.
For me, this all makes me wonder.. what is the point of the Ofsted registration if nannies are able to be registred without having the necessary criteria ????

hmmm well they shouldn't be able to, and i've not heard of this happening

you definitely need to get to the bottom of this, and ring Ofsted

so she hasn't got any quals,or insurance

does she have an up to date CRB and first aid ?!

I think mainly Ofsted is there for childminders and nannies sort of got lumped in too without much thought about the practicalities.

Childminders work alone so there is need for regulation, but as a nanny works in your home and hopefully you get chances to "check up" on her there is less need for the same sort of regulation. Therefore the way in which ofsted applies to nannies is only in terms of voucher payments, so the criteria is redundant if that makes sense?

Sorry will try and explain... The criteria is there on the face of things (it seems to me), to ensure children are being cared for by someone with basic knowledge. But as there is less need for regulation and parents can decide if nanny is good/bad, it seems that the criteria is really just a farce and the whole system is in place for vouchers, but they have to have the crieria in place so that it looks like child welfare is important.

I'm not making sense am I?!

yes she 1st aid and obviously has CRB as she has the Ofsted registration certificate !
I've no intention of getting anyone into trouble, so I wont be calling Ofsted.
As far as I can tell Ofsted are at fault with their registration procedure which obviously doesnt check sufficiently before registering nannies. When I paid the registration fee for my previous nanny a couple of years ago, she had to go and have her documents authenticated at the post office.. seemingly the procedure has since changed.
My concern is to take on an Ofsted reg nanny for so many hours that I do have the requirement to use vouchers, make work commitments around that and then she has her Ofsted reg revoked because she doesnt have the necessities.
Anyway, I have since interviewed other Ofsted reg nannies who have all the necessary criteria so I will be going with one of those instead !
Thanks again everyone for all your help with this.. has been a bit of an eyeopener for me.. !

It shows that the system isn't working, as the users would expect. Am I right in thinking that you had expected an Ofsted Registered Nanny to have met the criteria for Ofsted Registration - not at all unreasonable to expect that.

Goes to show that you should always check someone's credentials yourself - don't rely on a registration certificate.

Absolutely I expected her to have met the criteria as she has an Ofsted certificate !
To be honest, I hadnt thought there was anyway to dupe the system.. hence my confusion in the first place but just shows how wrong you can be !
I think it is disgraceful that this is able to happen. I do always check but thought if a nanny held an Ofsted certificate they had been checked.. by Ofsted !!!

Actually thinking about it, a year or so ago my then-employer looked into having me registered. Apparently the person she spoke to at Ofsted told her that as I had several years experience I didn't need to do a qualification so long as "I felt my experience covered everything in the common core" . I was a bit sceptical, but this was what the person at Ofsted had said and he sent out forms to me. As it happens I didn't register then for unrelated reasons.

Ime, Ofsted are pretty inconsistent - everytime I have spoken to a different person there I am told a different thing.