More questions about qualifications!

[Guest]

Hello, I know qualifications have been done to death but i am struggling to find suitable information so please help.

We are a PVI nursery who is governed by a school, they provide a midday supervisor to cover lunches. she works in the 2-3 room with at least a level 3 but she is counted in ratio. The staff room is immediately connected to the playroom so staff are called upon as required in an emergency. My question is are we actually allowed to include her in ratio, she has no formal qualifications just experience, this is for an hour a day.

 

Also............ with the changes to GCSE's and being counted in ratio, can we still count students who are studying towards their qualifications in ratio as we could before for short periods of time if we are confident of their ability or do they already have to have their GCSE's to be included? We currently use them to support with supervisions etc

 

I really hope that those questions make sense- I hope someone has the answer

TIA

[AliceinWonderland]

Hi, not sure about the first part of your question as i'm not sure if rules are different when you are part of a school, but regarding the GCSE's, the way i have read it is that newly qualified level 3's have to have GCSE's to count in ratios, therefore you have to have one fully qualified level 3 (with GCSE's if newly qualified), and then for the rest of the staff have at least half of them at level 2 or above, so i would say that this means you can still count trainees in ratio as long as you have the right number of qualified staff as well. As far as i understand, the new rules only apply to level 3's who have just qualified. hope this helps.

[Guest]

Hi Alice, Thanks for that. I thought that was the case with the student, but suddenly had a mad 'Oh gosh' moment!! Still slightly concerned about the mid-day supervisor!! I did a google search and there are still *some* jobs out there for unqualified nursery staff, but I don't know whether they would be included in ratio. It just keeps getting more and more complicated!!

[thumperrabbit]

I did a google search and there are still *some* jobs out there for unqualified nursery staff, but I don't know whether they would be included in ratio. It just keeps getting more and more complicated!!

I agree! Very occasionally we used to rely on a DBS checked committee member but apparently they can't be used now - it feels like they are changing the goal posts to suit themselves and their own agenda, what ever that is!

[Guest]

I must say I am starting to get quite disillusioned about it all, fairly rapidly!! It's just not going to be possible to get a qualified member of staff just to cover an hour for lunch, and of course we could never afford to pay a qualified member of staff for more hours!!! So what you have just said suggests that we cannot count the MDSA in ratio!?! :unsure:

[mundia]

There is nothing in the statutory framework to suggest that unqualified staff cannot be counted in ratio. You just need to ensure that the ratio overall includes the correct amount of qualified staff. So how many adults do you have during that lunch time? If in doubt always go back to the EYFS, it's all in there.

[Guest]

But surely in schools reception teachers do not cover lunch but school dinner staff do? They do not have level 3 qualifications.?? And I'm not sure about the ratios as i can't say there would be 1 dinner lady for every 8 children or they would need 4 just to cover reception..think school must d o it differently?

[Guest]

Thanks all, I do refer back to the EYFS as rightly so there has been no formal changes to do, however you then start hearing horror stories and with the big O due from next year I've probably been really over thinking it all! I think schools are a law unto themselves, unfortunately we fall under the schools umbrella but they forget that in fact we are a PVI. I agree Marley i have no idea how they manage it.

And thank Mundia for reminding me to keep my head and refer back to what we actually all have in writing!!!