Inge Posted December 16, 2009 Posted December 16, 2009 Forgive me if this has been covered or mentioned , but was reading my Early years Mag when I came across an article reminding childminders that they are now covered by food hygiene regulations and need to keep records of what they do to keep food safe.. Food standards agency has produced a pack to help with this.. Safer Food Better Business for Childminders... ( they say it is conciseand covers the key issues.) get it by email from foodstandards@ecgroup.co.uk Its free Inge
Upsy Daisy Posted December 16, 2009 Posted December 16, 2009 Thanks for this Inge. It is a shame but this is one the reasons why I ask parents to provide all food for their children. One of my next policies to write is a food hygiene policy which informs parents that they must provide cool bags with ice packs so that I do not have a responsibilty for keeping food safe. I just feel that I have enough hoops to jump through without having to keep records about food storage and preparation. This is the link to the FSA site http://www.food.gov.uk/enforcement/enforce...p/childminders/
Guest Posted December 16, 2009 Posted December 16, 2009 Check with your local authority first - not all insist on the same level of training and recording! We have to hold a current Basic Food Hygiene certificate and be aware of safe food preparation and storage BUT don't get inspected by Environmental Health as food preparation businesses. I'm in Dudley but I know other areas do! The Safer Food, Better Business pack is quite large and records fridge/freezer temperatures 3 times a day etc etc - not very workable in your own home! but good for ideas for your own "safe handling" policy. Nona
Upsy Daisy Posted December 16, 2009 Posted December 16, 2009 I looked into all this last year and got a different answer from each person I spoke to. In the end I decided it was not worth pursuing any further. Better just not to store or prepare any food. I'm just hiding my head in the sand about cooking activities I do with the children. I'll cross that bridge if and when I come to it.
Tink69 Posted December 16, 2009 Posted December 16, 2009 I have the childminders version and its very straight forward not a lot of form filling. Very easy to understand. I didn't have to be inspected either my local environmental health, they sent a questionnaire to fill in and that was it.
narnia Posted December 17, 2009 Posted December 17, 2009 our area is the same as Nona's............we don't get inspected. We were sent a form to fill in a couple of years ago, that was slightly complicated, so I telephoned the EH chap at the council and he talked me through the whole thing. I explained that children bring their own lunches, which we refridgerate, and that we do cooking activities 9 the usual stuff: christmas cakes,biscuits, fruit salads, etc) plus prepare snack of fruit, vegetables etc.he was very helpful and when i sent the form in, he called me to say we were considered VERY low risk and it was highly unlikely we would ever be inspected. We do all have food hygeine certificates too, maybe that helped?
Inge Posted December 17, 2009 Author Posted December 17, 2009 as Tink 69 has said it is a different pack to the one in settings.. which was unwieldy and unworkable, considering how much we do.. it is aimed at childminders at home, Inge
Guest jane707 Posted December 20, 2009 Posted December 20, 2009 The new childminder's pack is straightforward to use ... It's worth getting a copy and having a look at. It makes the whole process much easier
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