Chairman

[Guest]

Can someone please give me some advice....

 

Does the chairman of the pre school need to have safeguarding training, and full knowledge of the eyfs?

 

Many thanks

[Guest]

I hope not, or we're stuffed!

[sunnyday]

I hope not, or we're stuffed!

 

Sorry Tilly - I have no idea - not committee run myself.........

[trekker]

I believe they should be familiar with both...the committee as a whole have ultimate responsibility for ensuring the setting meets the requirements of the EYFS so need to know what should be being done. Ideally there should be a safeguarding lead on the committee who works alongside and supports the staff designated person...and the committee are responsible for ensuring safer recruitment procedures are followed so someone should be trained in this at least...

[Mouseketeer]

We now have to have a member who is safeguard L2 trained, but didn't have to be the chair.

[Foreveryoung]

Mine isn't, I have one with safeguarding training and one who's done safer recruitment, I struggled at getting that argh!!

[thumperrabbit]

What??! Something else, I'm not doing?!

None of my 2 members of committee are trained in anything - unless you can count the fact that I am a general member of committee as Manager?

[Inge]

In an ideal world they would have this knowledge, but in reality how many could you get to do this as volunteer, and for the limited time they usually do the job.. Ours changed annually so no chance at all , by the time they had done anything they had gone..

 

I used to give them the paperwork and a summary version, they did read all the policies and procedures, and had a copy to refer to, as to the rest we used to say that was what we employed a manager for, I fully believe it to be almost impossible that a committee member could learn and do all that is needed with no experience , it is hard enough to get them to do the job in the first place.. much more and it will be impossible.

[Guest]

In an ideal world they would have this knowledge, but in reality how many could you get to do this as volunteer, and for the limited time they usually do the job.. Ours changed annually so no chance at all , by the time they had done anything they had gone..

 

I used to give them the paperwork and a summary version, they did read all the policies and procedures, and had a copy to refer to, as to the rest we used to say that was what we employed a manager for, I fully believe it to be almost impossible that a committee member could learn and do all that is needed with no experience , it is hard enough to get them to do the job in the first place.. much more and it will be impossible.

 

 

Yes, this is the problem. Often, committee members are only doing it because Preschool will close if they don't - they don't actually have much interest in doing the 'job' as volunteers. And we can't afford to keep training people who will probably change every year or two (as our committee tends to).

 

One of our current members is very knowledgeable about the EYFS, and one a teacher (music?) in a primary school, but all the others are laypersons and certainly know nothing about safeguarding. I tell my staff that if they have a safeguarding issue they can't discuss with me, as the DSO (eg if the issue was me!), then they need to go to the LADO as the next step up.

 

Just one more thing to worry about now!

[blondie]

at a recent ofsted the chair was asked about

the prevent /promoting british values - i had recently given her a copy of our policy and notes on what it meant so that helped

who had done safer recruitment training - three committee had done it online

safeguarding - sure all they need to know is that the safeguarding lead is dealing with this appropriately and correctly

[manor]

Seeing as our Chair is down as the nominated person for Ofsted, she had to know about safegarding and was indeed asked about it when we had our 'Registration visit'. She was also advised to do some updated training on it. We have since changed Chairs so think we will be going over it again, as we now need to include all the Prevent stuff.

[diesel10]

One of the committee should be named as the safeguarding person in your policy. Training can be done online. If you had a staffing issue the committee would need to step in and sort out.

[thumperrabbit]

One of the committee should be named as the safeguarding person in your policy. Training can be done online. If you had a staffing issue the committee would need to step in and sort out.

something else I've not got - added to 'the list'

[SueJ]

You might be interested in this from the Ofsted guide to registration re the roles and responsibilities of committees and chairs:

 

The nominated person
If you are an organisation applying to provide childcare on domestic or non-domestic premises, you should nominate a person to represent the organisation in its dealings with us. Normally this should be a committee member, partner or director. This person will be interviewed during the registration process and will receive all legal documents and correspondence.
Where the prime purpose of an organisation is not childcare, the nominated person is the most senior person with responsibility for childcare.
The nominated person must have a full and thorough understanding of their role in relation to the registered childcare provision. If they are involved in the recruitment and continuing employment of the manager of the setting they will also need to be clear about their responsibilities in relation to the manager.
Inspectors will tell a senior person in the organisation if they think that the nominated person does not have the relevant knowledge and understanding of the early years’ requirements. The organisation may appoint someone else. Unless the nominated person holds the required knowledge about requirements we will refuse registration. Ofsted will check to make sure any person new to this role understands requirements.
Whenever organisations have new committee members they must make sure they have the skills and knowledge to fulfil their roles and responsibilities in relation to the childcare. If the entire committee changes, the outgoing members will be expected to ensure that the new committee members understand their roles and responsibilities.​

[thumperrabbit]

and if they never did thier roles & responsibilities?! :unsure:

I always took it that the Manager (if they are the nominated person) was the one who needed to do/know everything?

 

Whenever organisations have new committee members they must make sure they have the skills and knowledge to fulfil their roles and responsibilities in relation to the childcare. If the entire committee changes, the outgoing members will be expected to ensure that the new committee members understand their roles and responsibilities.​

[barcombeplaygroup]

We are committee run but I am the nominated person as committee changes so often - Ofsted seem quite happy with this.

[Guest]

Well, if that's the case, we need a rethink!

[lynned55]

Well none of my 3 committee members know anything about anything, although one is a nurse- so she has first aid covered!

My Chair works full time, so is unlikely to see any Ofsted inspector.

 

.............oh dear. I think I may just close- will make life much easier.

[hali]

Yes they should have knowledge of both :1b

[lynned55]

In an ideal world, they would have full knowledge of all they should. However I wonder how many of us committee run do have committee that would know anything about EYFS and the full requirements for settings

[thumperrabbit]

In an ideal world, they would have full knowledge of all they should. However I wonder how many of us committee run do have committee that would know anything about EYFS and the full requirements for settings

Mine certainly don't but with money extremely tight they learn how to fundraise really well!!

[Guest]

As I understand it the suitable person interview covers this in that each person that is the nominated person (may or may not be the chair) has a suitable person interview by Ofsted. We have just been inspected and our chair wasn't available only by telephone and this wasn't a problem. I do think we sometimes worry too much! Our local authority recently posted that committee members must have safeguarding training as instructed by the charity commission - that it was mandatory. When I looked at it it simply stated that they must be aware of the safeguarding processes in place and how/what to do! Interpetation springs to mind!