Ratios in mixed age rooms

[53rdAndBird]

Anyone know how this works? If you have a room with, eg, three 1-year-olds and ten 2-year-olds, should there be a staff ratio of 1:3 in the room to keep it right for the under-2s, or can one member of staff be watching the under-2s in a 1:3 ratio while others divide up the 2-year-olds between them in a 1:5 ratio?

Asking because it was DD's first settling in session today, and her room is temporarily mixed age with both 1-year-olds and 2-year-olds (while some kids are off on holiday). Was ok with this in itself, but am concerned that there were only 3 staff there for 13/14 kids with 1-year-olds and 2-year-olds all playing together - seems like not enough. Now worried about taking her tomorrow for first part session on her own

The ratios for each age group should be maintained. For example if there are 6 under two and 8 two year olds there should be 4 staff. Under two ratio is 1:3 and two year old ratio is 1:4 ( not 1:5 ) .

Even if they were all over two, three staff would not be ok for 14 (1:4 ratio).

3 1yos and 10 2yos need 4 staff - 1 for the 1 year olds and 3 for the 2s.

Hmm. Is the ratio for 2-3s different in Scotland (where we are) vs rest of UK? Every nursery we looked round said it was a 1:5 ratio for that age group.

OK, well if the ratio is 1:5 in Scotland then 3 adults for 3x1yos and 10x2yos was correct.

Ok, after some Googling - apparently yes it is different in Scotland! Definitely 1:5 here for 2-3 year olds.

So are they still out of ratio by not having 1:3, given that there are 1-year-olds in the room? Or is it ok to have a room ratio that's different from that in a mixed age room?

Ok, well that's a relief.

To be honest I am kind of guessing (hoping?) that there were only 3 1-year-olds. Asked the room leader how their ratios work but she got distracted by another child mid-answer. I'll ask again and get specifics tomorrow.

The 1 year olds need to be in a 1:3 ratio, but the 2 year olds don't have to be in a 1:3 ratio just because there are babies present.

For example you could have a mixed group of 15 1-3 year olds with three adults if you had
3 1yos = 1 adult
4 2yos = 1 adult
8 3yos = 1 adult

However if those 15 children were 3 1yos, 8 2yos and 4 3yos you would need four adults
3 1yos = 1 adult
8 2yos = 2 adults
4 3yos = 1 adult