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I know now that we need to use sqaure meterage to determine the no of children we can have, but under the old system there was a cap at a max of 26 per room. I have ploughed through my revised eyfs and had a good search on Ofsted site, but can't find such a rule any more. Can anyone advise whether the cap still exists?

 

 

Sorry should have stated " Childcare on non domestic premises...ie a PVI nursery.

Edited by eyfs1966
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There is a limit of 10 children per toilet, but not sure about a limit per room. We are in the process of applying to Ofsted at the moment and have 2 rooms that the children will use but were told by a LEA advisor that we can have a maximum of 30 children as we have 3 toilets the children will use (the 4th is for the staff)

Not sure if this helps at all, but hope it does

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Now funny you should ask that question. As I asked our Inspector the very same question. As we are registered to take 30 children per session, but on one of the sessions we have another community group that use an adjoining room. So in the past have only had 24 children in on that session. Her answer was as we have free flow to our garden area and 3 toilets purely for children's use she felt it would be no problem having 30 children in the same as our other sessions. :)

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Thanks everyone, very useful. But leads me to another question. We have only 1 toliet expressly for the children, but can access (downstairs) 4 more, but these we do not have sole use of, plus a disabled loo (which we have designated as staff loo). We were registered on this basis many many moons ago, but are we still ok?

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After just having our registration visit for the new site I was told that it was solely based on our square meterage, we have 3 childrens toilets and one disabled/adults which we could count if need be! Have attached the document but the inspector also said we should deduct 10% of total area for furniture too!

The numbers and ages of children that providers on the Early Years and Childcare Registers may care for.doc

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Just out of interest Moo how many children did Ofsted state for the number of toilets - at present we have 40 two to five year olds and three toilets plus a separate staff/disabled toilet in another area, and this has always been fine. WE have just been recalculated by our EYAT and she stated we could increase by another 10 children, and felt the toilet 'issue' wasn't one as some of out two year olds are still in nappies ( we have separate nappy change areas) and potty training - her argument was that at most , any time we wouldn't go over the 40 needing to use toilets and that would be ok ? Am confused now after seeing this thread and worried I will get penalised if this isn't the case and we go ahead.

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Oh I wish there was some consistency! When we moved to a new site, our Ofsted inspector doing the new registration said that the square metres given was the minimum space needed for each age group and that we did not need to deduct anything for furniture - it was all included. She did say that you cannot include cupboard space. We have three toilets for children only and one staff/disabled but were told we could count this if children were able to use it (which they are and do occasionally). There are such strict rules, but they seem to be open to interpretation by whoever does the registration/inspection!

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I'm sure I've read that it's 10 children per toilet! My inspector made it quite clear that the emphasis was now on the provider to ensure requirements are being met! The toilet thing didn't really come up as we have 4 altogether and although she was willing to discuss numbers with me she wouldn't comment too much on what we should go with! She did say that as long as we're in ratio we could use any combination of age groups for the space but was clear about deducting the 10% for furniture! Have attached my calculations for interest but these aren't set in stone as we'll adapt according to demand!

PLAN.docx

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Just out of interest Moo how many children did Ofsted state for the number of toilets - at present we have 40 two to five year olds and three toilets plus a separate staff/disabled toilet in another area, and this has always been fine. WE have just been recalculated by our EYAT and she stated we could increase by another 10 children, and felt the toilet 'issue' wasn't one as some of out two year olds are still in nappies ( we have separate nappy change areas) and potty training - her argument was that at most , any time we wouldn't go over the 40 needing to use toilets and that would be ok ? Am confused now after seeing this thread and worried I will get penalised if this isn't the case and we go ahead.

 

I think I'd give OFSTED a call! Or maybe Tribal if their the sub contractors in your area.........I've ended up calling them a lot over the summer, their far friendlier, pro active and have proven more useful than OFSTED more than once!!!!

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Furthermore I wouldn't rely too much on what your LA are telling you with regard to OFSTED requirements, I've certainly been given a lot of duff info over the last few weeks leading to lot's of stress and delays!

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