Ratios

[Guest]

our toddler room has 7 children

4 children are over 2

3 children aged between 22 - 23 months

do i class these as a 1 - 3 ratio with 3 staff

or do i class them as 1 - 4 for the children over 2's and 1 - 3 for the children under 2's which is 2 staff

im not sure how to go with this and i would be grateful for your advice on this

[Sue R]

I would say the actual requirement would be 2 staff, but better practice and safer would be to have 3, in my view.

 

Sue

[Guest]

Hiya Jojom

 

I would class it as two 1:3 for the 3 under twos and !:4 for the over twos. I am supernumery though so i am available to cover toilet breaks etc

 

Jayne

[Guest]

I have been told my Ofsted recently and when I went on a 'Meet the National Standards course', that you must work your ratio to that of the youngest child, so even if you had one under 2 in the room you would need to have a ratio of 1:3.

 

This can prove expensive, as for instance in my setting our two rooms are mixed together (18 months to 3 years), this means that we have to employ an extra person, even though sometimes we may only have one under 2 in.

 

Sorry, probably not what you wanted to hear, but better to be safe than sorry, especially in case somebody was to make a complaint or there was an accident.

[Guest]

Working a ratio in accordance with the youngest in the room could make a huge impact on many of us (or certainly me). Has anyone else heard of this way of working out staffing?

[Guest]

thanks for your comments i will be sticking with the 1 - 3 ratio

[Guest]

I would say the same as JayneD.

 

We now move children up to the toddler room when we feel they are ready. I spoke to Ofsted about this, and we talked about ratios, and they said to adhere to 1:3 for under 2s, and 1:4 for over 2s.

 

If you have more staff then that's even better!

[Guest]

Hiya

 

Ofsted were fine when they came out, mine were mainly 2and 3 yrs mixed before i moved my 3 yrs over to the school but my ratios were 1:4 for 2's and 1:8 for 3's

I have a meeting with my early years support team monday morning i will check with them and get back.

 

JayneD

[Guest]

Once again it seems it depends on the Ofsted Inspector. We were definately told by Ofsted it had to be 1:3 in a mixed group, which actually means I have to employ another member of staff, which as 'Chill' indicated, would have an impact on many settings working to this ratio.

 

Sorry if I worried anybody, but just wanted to let you know what we were told. I think I must just get all the 'jobsworth' people come to my setting.

[Guest]

That is really odd. Many pre-school in my area take a limited number of children from 2 1/2, and non have an overall ratio of 1-4. No problems with rations in their OfSted inspection either.

[Guest]

Quite agree with alm we have just been inspected today and there were no problems with our ratios we have mixed groups but make sure there are 4 2 year olds to one adult and the other adults cover the 3 year olds

 

Deb