mrsbat Posted December 13, 2008 Share Posted December 13, 2008 Hi all, sorry me again. Well we had our big meeting last night (and the early hours of this morning) It all went ok and I officially took over from january as supervisor but I do have a few questions which were raised last night, I wonder if anyone can help me with them please? I tried calling ofsted but they are not open at the weekends. So, firstly a bit of back ground. We have 2 rooms in a village hall, the smaller room is for 2-3 year olds, the larger room is for 3year olds to school age. This is where it now gets complicated, because the current supervisor is leaving we will go down to only having 2 level 3 wualified staff, may worries are: If one of the staff with a level 3 is ill can we still run both rooms? as there will only be a level 2 person in one of the rooms and will it make a dfference if one of those level 2 people are currently working towards a level 3? Currently we have 1 day a week where we open from 9-11.30 then reopen 12.30-3.30. But because 4 of the staff members having to pick up fom school at 3.20 we would obviously be way out on our ratios. I was hoping we could change the afternoon session to 12-3 hence cutting out the need to leave and get the school children. The problem here is that I think we have to have a clear hour when we are not looking after children? some of the staff do both sessions so would it be ok to open at 12 and the staff from the morning session do not get involved with the children until 12.30 but are still in the room to be counted in the ratios? The children come straight in with their lunch boxes and eat so by the time they have finished that "clear hour" would be up and everyone can help with the children again - hope that makes sense?? sorry it's a long babbly post I know but I really need to know by monday if we are changing the session time so I can let the parents know before we break up. Thanks in advance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 13, 2008 Share Posted December 13, 2008 Hi all, sorry me again. Well we had our big meeting last night (and the early hours of this morning) It all went ok and I officially took over from january as supervisor but I do have a few questions which were raised last night, I wonder if anyone can help me with them please? I tried calling ofsted but they are not open at the weekends. So, firstly a bit of back ground. We have 2 rooms in a village hall, the smaller room is for 2-3 year olds, the larger room is for 3year olds to school age. This is where it now gets complicated, because the current supervisor is leaving we will go down to only having 2 level 3 wualified staff, may worries are: If one of the staff with a level 3 is ill can we still run both rooms? as there will only be a level 2 person in one of the rooms and will it make a dfference if one of those level 2 people are currently working towards a level 3? Currently we have 1 day a week where we open from 9-11.30 then reopen 12.30-3.30. But because 4 of the staff members having to pick up fom school at 3.20 we would obviously be way out on our ratios. I was hoping we could change the afternoon session to 12-3 hence cutting out the need to leave and get the school children. The problem here is that I think we have to have a clear hour when we are not looking after children? some of the staff do both sessions so would it be ok to open at 12 and the staff from the morning session do not get involved with the children until 12.30 but are still in the room to be counted in the ratios? The children come straight in with their lunch boxes and eat so by the time they have finished that "clear hour" would be up and everyone can help with the children again - hope that makes sense?? sorry it's a long babbly post I know but I really need to know by monday if we are changing the session time so I can let the parents know before we break up. Thanks in advance my precious post I was supervisor and I worked from 8.30 -3.15 without a break and was told by th eycs that so long as i sat with the children at luch time then that was ok Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aliamch Posted December 13, 2008 Share Posted December 13, 2008 Hi, not sure about about the staffing ratios, but we are a sessional pre-school and our sessions are 09.30-12.00 and 12.30-14.45. though there is half an hour between sessions we never get that as children and parents leaving can run to 10-15 minutes after the session ends. Karrie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inge Posted December 13, 2008 Share Posted December 13, 2008 the hour between sessions is no longer needed, we ran with 15 mins between for a couple of yeas before Eyfs and as long as we had time between sessions for delay in collecting this was Ok.. once parents knew we were opening soon after they collected we seldom had any problems, Lunch club was included in the hours open, as you have children in your care and ratios of staff working with he children need to be maintained, but we sit with the children for our lunch and have 20 mins rota for everyone to leave and have a break at lunch time, one at a time as numbers over the lunch period are often less than during the session . think with EYFS it has changed again, but not completely sure, we had a variation from September to full day with no hassle, our new registration document no longer said sessional care and eyfs has same welfare requirements for both, sessional is no longer mentioned. cannot help with ratio as while we had 2 rooms they are linked and act as one with no under 3s, and all level 3 staff it has not been an issue. I do think it important that you keep to ratio and consider changing hours to allow collection from school if this is needed. Inge Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrsbat Posted December 13, 2008 Author Share Posted December 13, 2008 Thank you Inge, do you know where there is any legislation i can print our that says we do not have to have a clear hour closure please? or does anyone else know of any please? Thanks you Sorry i am being a right pain I know but I really want to do everything right, especially as we have an inspection due imminently Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrsbat Posted December 13, 2008 Author Share Posted December 13, 2008 oohh I finally found some legislation Figures from Ofsted for June 2007 show that there were:•8,931 registered settings•providing 220,800 places for sessional day care (i.e. facilities that provide day care forchildren under eight for a continuous period of less than four hours in any day in non-domestic premises. Although such providers can offer two such sessions per day, theremust be a break between sessions where no children are in the care of the provider.) inEngland Soooooo am I right in thinking that so long as there is a period of time where no children are in our care then we are ok? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inge Posted December 13, 2008 Share Posted December 13, 2008 (edited) yes.. we had minimum of 15 mins quoted at us, that was 2 years ago now. Legislation for this was found in the old national standards book for sessional care BUT the figures you give are BEFORE EYFS ........when things changed! If you read the EYFS document there is no mention of sessional care. What does it say on your current registration certificate for type of care you are registered for ? Do they still say sessional care? ours did not but we changed to full day in Sept. (I was curious as to if it was still stated as sessional care on certificates in light of EYFS.) Inge Edited December 13, 2008 by Inge Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrsbat Posted December 13, 2008 Author Share Posted December 13, 2008 yes.. we had minimum of 15 mins quoted at us, that was 2 years ago now. Legislation for this was found in the old national standards book for sessional care BUT the figures you give are BEFORE EYFS ........when things changed! If you read the EYFS document there is no mention of sessional care. What does it say on your current registration certificate for type of care you are registered for ? Do they still say sessional care? ours did not but we changed to full day in Sept. (I was curious as to if it was still stated as sessional care on certificates in light of EYFS.) Inge yes our certificate still says sessional care but maybe after our inspection it will be changed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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