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Anyone Got A Quick Difinitive Answer?


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Is there such a thing lol?

 

We are open, morning and afternoon, children have the choice to come to either session or stay all day, when we changed to this ofsted were fine with it and I asked the question as to whether we needed to have a break in between and they said no (stupidly I deleted the email reply from them!)

 

BUT members of staff today have suddenly decided that they are sure it's against the law :o

 

soooo does anyone know the answer please? as I'd like to go back tomorrow with the facts xD

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If staff work longer than 6 hours they are entitled to a 20 minute break. You can find that info on the ACAS website.

 

We run our sessions exactly like you, and children can arrive in the morning and stay till before or after lunch or all day. They can arrive before or after lunch and stay all afternoon (if that makes sense) I make sure we have a quiet sit down after lunch with books and jigsaws

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This was exactly the reason that we couldn't run sessions like this!

 

Staff are entitled to a full 20 minute break away from their place of work, however you are not forced to pay them for this time!

 

As we only have 5 members of staff we couldn't do rotas etc as we needed 5 active staff with children all the time.

 

Good luck with this and I hope you can find a solution to this.

 

Debster

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They are entitled to a break of 20 mins, but it doesn't have to be given until after working for 6 hours if you see fit! We run in the same way but have a lady who comes in to cover lunches for 1 hour 15 mins in which time we take it in turns to have a 20/30 minute unpaid break!

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hi

 

I (parents!) want to change our sessions so that we do not have a break in the middle ie children can stay 9-12 or 9-1pm or 12-3pm or 1-3pm so your answers about staff breaks have been helpful.

 

But I rang OFSTED to ask if the registration fee would go up from the sessional amount but they said no. I not convinced the person gave me the correct answer. I am going to put it in writing to them but does anyone know.

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hi

 

I (parents!) want to change our sessions so that we do not have a break in the middle ie children can stay 9-12 or 9-1pm or 12-3pm or 1-3pm so your answers about staff breaks have been helpful.

 

But I rang OFSTED to ask if the registration fee would go up from the sessional amount but they said no. I not convinced the person gave me the correct answer. I am going to put it in writing to them but does anyone know.

 

Our fee stayed the same when we did as you want to ..this was a charity /committee run setting...

 

break is 20 mins after 6 hours and unpaid, which can be at end of the 6 hours... we managed to work in a break lunch time as we found numbers did reduce for the hour in the middle offering the mixture of times... but most times staff sat with children , they were able to go offsite if they wished and worked out a rota so we were always in ratio , depended on staff each day... most days we had a staff changeover lunch time which helped with the cover at this time...

 

as most stayed on premises and did not take advantage of us we paid for this time, but it just developed this way as we added the hours... if we had been changing to give a break I think we would have made it unpaid..

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Hi

My former Pre School implemented a similar system last September - children arrive for either morning, afternoon or full day (only opens for 2 full days as the premises is rented and not available). It is a pre school playgroup - only 5 staff in total - and 4 staff max on any set day. Staff rota themselves 1 or 2 staff at a time for 30 mins lunch break - but as this affects ratios in the setting they have had to employ lunch time cover (willing parent) for 1 hour per full day. (Not ideal as it is equivalent to 2hrs work per week -but it does mean ratios are ok and the staff get a decent break) However the parent who has been working the 2 hours per week lunchtime cover will not be available in September as her child starts school - so staff need to advertise for this position - no takers for 2 hrs per wk minimum wage as you can imagine.

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Thanks everyone for all the helpful info, I will take this back with me tomorrow.

 

I and most of the staff members sit with the children and eat our lunch with them - I'd be interested to know if others do this and if there are views from ofsted about it?

 

Thanks again so much for all the help I love this forum xD

 

Diesel, our fee didn't go up either :o

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Thanks everyone for all the helpful info, I will take this back with me tomorrow.

 

I and most of the staff members sit with the children and eat our lunch with them - I'd be interested to know if others do this and if there are views from ofsted about it?

 

Thanks again so much for all the help I love this forum xD

 

Diesel, our fee didn't go up either :o

 

 

at our last inspection when I was there they were fine with it.. they liked the fact that we sat and interacted with the children , and organised it so that if anyone needed or wanted a break we were able to... she sat with us for lunch and a drink.. was mentioned positively in our report too..

 

we were pack away and most times we could set up and have a 5 (or even 10 min break if we worked fast) before the children came in.. so we did only actually work 6 hours .... so we were legal..

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