what STUFF do you need to do the flexible offer?

[misshardbroom]

[sorry for big capital letter shouting. Don't know what came over me]

Our local authority has made a grant available to settings who want to implement the flexible offer.

As I'm sure you can imagine, there's a vast array of hoops to be jumped through, pigs to be flown, etc.

We have to submit a costed list of all the things we think we would buy with the money, and why we need them, e.g. 'fridge: to store packed lunches'.

Only we don't need a fridge. If only it was that easy.

So has anybody already done something similar, or can anyone make any useful suggestions of things that you might need to buy in order to implement the flexible offer? I can spend up to a grand.

Sorry never heard of it.

It's the business about increasing the number of hours nursery education from 12.5 hrs per week to 15 hrs, and allowing parents to use the time flexibly, e.g. a parent can choose to run two 3 hour sessions together to have a 6 hour block of care on any one day.

Sorry I misread the OP. I thought you were saying they were giving parents money for it!!

oh if only! I could be at a channel port within an hour!

Mis HB - we've just done a couple of LA grants, one of them successfully. If you give me a bit more info, I'll see if it's like ours. They kept going on about settings implementing the flexible offer and I thing it just means offering what you're doing to more children without restrictions.

How do you currently do your sessions? Then we can look at the changes needed (what are you current staff shift pattens?)

OK, currently there's morning and afternoon sessions, each 2.5 hours in length. No option to do lunch club.

We're aiming to open a satellite site which will be much more suitable for the flexible offer. We will do morning & afternoon sessions there, OR parents can choose to run two sessions together to do an 'extended session' of 5 hours in length.

This grant would be lots easier if we were just doing the flexible thing in our existing premises, because then it would be obvious, e.g. we'd buy a bigger fridge, rest mats etc. However, because we are actually opening a second site, we need everything!!

I've agreed with the LA that I will ask them to fund the things which are essential to an extended day, so I'm thinking about equipment we need for meals, a rest area for children, more things to enable outside play, perhaps a greater variety in toys we have already (e.g. if you only had one small world set a child doing 5 hours would get mightily bored with it).

KatyMac - from a CM's perspective, is there anything you particularly use for day long care that we wouldn't usually use for sessional care?

Hot drinks in with the children

Umm lots of outside play, room to just 'be' is very important, I have settees to snuggle on & how mixed are your ages?

I thought to run them together you had to add in mealtimes?

yes, you're the second person on MN to mention this today. My first call in the morning is to our advisory teacher at the LA to clarify!!

All the children are 3 & 4 so should be past having a nap as such, but I'm still ordering some big squashy floor cushion things for them to have some chill-out time on.

And I'm thinking about some big stuff like a parachute or something so that you can take a group outside to do an activity.

TBH you shouldn't be going outside to do an activity

Everything should be inside/outside will you need to make structural alterations to enable this? I have had to

Plus additional funding for heating indoors (tbh we often give up put coats on all the time & leave the bloody door open)

In our existing premises we're able to do a lot of free-flow between inside and outside, but I don't know how easy that will be on the new site because it's at a school and while the preschool room has its own external door, it's straight onto the school playground (which we're allowed to use), there's not a secure outdoor area just for preschoolers.

Hard work, this, isn't it - don't know how you manage it all in your own home.

I have a purpose build extension playroom & mini loo & sleeproom & covered secure play area

I was |---| close to opening a nursery last year

What about funding for barriers so you could partition off part of the playground when the rest of the school in inside?