At 10.30 yesterday I got the unnanounced Ofsted inspector on my door step!!!!!

[thebody]

SHIT.... we had just been in the garden.. they all had water.. good.. and quavers..BAD. Still had to get on with it.
She was quite nice and liked the playroom and all the photos and childrens art work on the wall.. good..

Left her to troll through all policies and proceedures and contracts etc while I got the paints out.

Careered into dh who was busy trying to move athe empty wine bottles from the recycle bin and hide..

Left them for 2 minutes with my ditsy 10year old daughter to come back and see the 1 year old COVERED in green paint.. she looked like a smurf... quick scrub in the sink...panic panic..

She was only really interested in My risk assessments.. I got an overall good but satisfactory on hygiene as I didnt have paper towels in the loo... and not goint in my own home.. how horrible...

Also I didnt have a flood policy,, we are in the midlands and nowhere near a river or even a stream!!!!And what would I do if the heating broke down.. I mean really are we imberciles... I have 2 coal fires anyway but I hadnt WRITTEN IT DOWN....

so anyway its over for another 3 years but I cant help thinking that they seem obsessed with crap and not the real issue.. are the kids happy!!!!!

Finally I hadnt done the sef form and told her I havnt got the time to do it either showed her parents sef forms on my practise and she seemed happy with that..

why unannounced? did you ask? i thiought we got notice as child minders so we could be in!

Good for you, thebody, congrats.

My inspection is looming, paper bloomin towels, flood policy, for goodness sake. I shall be keeping what I usually have and that is fresh individual flannels and little towels every day, I have loads of them.

Thats a point, missed that. Did'nt you know she was coming?

only ask as i had mine this week and was told to wait in until 9.30 every day and if not their by then to proceed as normal!!

she called me last week to see which days would be best and when was I on holiday.. But she didnt specify a date, just over the summer.. Its a good joc I was in actually.. and yes she apologised about the no notice and said she had forgotten!!!!mind you in a way it was better because I didnt have any worry time...

Thanks Iron.. I have little towels and flannels li,e you and that should be enough imo.. not turning my house loo into a public convenience.. I mean paper towels are horrible and we would have to get a bin..Its our home we work in not a nursery.. nonsense isnt it

LOL @ flood policy! I never had one of them, but I wished OFSTED had asked. I'd have pointed to the boat in the front garden and suggested that maybe that was proof enough that I had a contingency plan!

Good for you, for saying you didn't have time or wasn't going to do something! Children covered in paint is good. It means they are having fun and, call me old fashioned, but I thought that was what it was all about!

like the policy Maureen and totally agree. Think if more cms said that they hadnt time to do the sef the message might get through.. we need a boycot imo

Thebody: Meant to ask you, how long did she stay and did she ask you loads of questions as you hadn't completed your SEF?

Aren't the point of these inspections that they are unannounced so the inspector can see you for real?

Lol! at your DH trying to hide!

FFS did she ask to see your zombie plan too?

she stayed for about 2 hours and was really interested in all the risk assessments.

I had them for all outings, equipment, car journeys and a general tick list for cleaning and things like checking socket covers and garden safety so that was all fine.

Also I had a grab list of emergency telephone numbers and Doctors details of all children and she liked that..

I just felt like I would never have had enough to cover EVERYTHING I wondered if I should have had one for terrorist attack.. I know Shoshe has one cos she is on an army base.... lol about the aliens...
I mean we are all grown women and would use commen sense in an emergency wouldnt you?

She also was very interested in the books, I have ethnic ones iyswim.. but no disabled ones.. ifswim.. so will need to do that.

she also questioned me about my strenghts and weaknesses, I toyed with the idea of Brad Pitt, wine and chocolate but decided against this.. especially in view of the recycle bin)

I suppose it is sensible to call unnanounced but I checked her ID carefully..