Guest Posted March 30, 2007 Share Posted March 30, 2007 Hi all, One of my staff members is currently training towards her DPP. Her tutor has told her that Ofsted's new thing to pick at is that parent helpers whom supervise snack situations will need a food hygiene certificate. Ok so the helper will supervise and over see the snack bar but follows the groups procedures regarding hand washing etc. Staff all have the food hygiene certificate, so what should we do or can we do to accomodate this. Training all parents will be costly, time comsuming, and off putting to the helpers. At the minute staff pre-pare the snack before the session but.... next term we will be having the children pre-pare the snack.... so what happens then?..... Answers please! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 30, 2007 Share Posted March 30, 2007 Why not redeploy the parent to a different area and have your staff supervise the snack? We do not supervise our self-service snack - rather we all keep a watching eye over it as it is open for 1.5 hours and children dip in and out. Our main snacktime is in keyworker with a staffmember anyway. I hope this is helpful but of course our setup is bound to be different from yours. Definitely don't see it as worthwhile putting parent through food hygiene cert! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chill Posted March 30, 2007 Share Posted March 30, 2007 Can anyone tell me why ofsted inspectors keep coming up with different things in different areas? This is a fantastic forum for helping each other and without this I would feel totally lost about expectations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andreamay Posted March 30, 2007 Share Posted March 30, 2007 well only 3 of our 10 staff have food hygiene certificates so lots to pick on us about to be honest if that is all they can find then great! Untill they tell us Im certainly not sending all the staff and committee anywhere Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Running Bunny Posted March 30, 2007 Share Posted March 30, 2007 Our Environmental Health guidance that we send out to our providers recommends that all staff that deal with food preparation and handling have basic food hygiene certificates. Through our training directory, we offer this course at a subsidised rate (about £15), so you may want to get in touch with your local authority/advisory team to see if they offer any subsidised rates rather than going through a training company? New financial year starts soon, so there may be money available... Not sure that I'd pay for parent helpers to do the course though... I'd recommend changing roles if this was going to be an issue with Ofsted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Wolfie Posted March 30, 2007 Share Posted March 30, 2007 How about doing your own little food hygiene induction for any parent helpers who supervise snack - just do a quick handout with bullet points concerning hygienic food preparation and presentation that you can run through quickly and get them to sign? The pub where my son works in the kitchen (chief bottle washer!) doesn't send everybody on food hygiene courses and yet food is their main occupation!! So I don't really see the need for you to have to send parent helpers! I agree, if that's all that Ofsted can find to pick you up on then they are scraping the bottom of the barrel...with something clean of course!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hali Posted March 30, 2007 Share Posted March 30, 2007 3 of our satff have food hygeine certs and they are the only ones allowed to deal with foods at snack time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 30, 2007 Share Posted March 30, 2007 May be i will have to look at changing roles or in house training as suggested. Thanks for your help! Oh but what about our new plan to get the children involved in the snack prep? Would it be ok to have a "certificated!!!" member of staff to prep the food with the children, then for a helper to over see the table? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rea Posted March 30, 2007 Share Posted March 30, 2007 I cant see a problem with a helper overseeing the table. By choice I didnt do the FH course because I hate cooking and am rubbish even at packet mixes (it kept me out of the kitchen at playgroup) But no-one in any nursery I've been to has asked if I have it so I do understand the comments about Ofsted. In some places the staff wear aprons and hats to serve food others not. Today we made shredded wheat nests and no-one said me or the children should have FH certificate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inge Posted March 30, 2007 Share Posted March 30, 2007 cannot see why supervising the snack bar needs certificate surely the preparation is the area for certificate, and surely idea of children preparing is what is often looked for giving independence etc...ours often make sandwich for break and cut fruit. Is this same problem area as in some areas Ofsted are wanting supervised visits to toilet and others liking the independent toilet areas for children as mentioned before on forum. Inge Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andreamay Posted March 30, 2007 Share Posted March 30, 2007 As i said 3 members of staff have certificates as with all our courses they then came back and gave feedback, we all prepare snack and not at any time has anyone said we cant My staff have enough to do without finding courses for them to go on!!! Sorry,Im tired!! The last 2 ofsted inspections have been brilliant so im afraid when Im told that we need to do it I will but til then ....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beau Posted March 30, 2007 Share Posted March 30, 2007 This may well be one individual inspector with a bee in their bonnet. Sounds like they haven't truly thought through the implications of the advice they are giving. I would be very surprised if this was something that others get advised. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 30, 2007 Share Posted March 30, 2007 Dont panic - sI am now off to send all my children on a Food Handling Course as they prepare their own snacks under supervision. I will of course abide by all the rules of the H&S and prewarn the tutors giving the course that the attendees are quite small and could they please ensure they supply the necessary tables and chairs to avoid back problems or issues with falling off their chairs along with ensuring that they have enough facilities to change themselves should they wet themselves during the preparation of thefruit and could they supply small aprons and gloves for doing so!!!! To be inclusive could they also deliver the whole course with supporting visual cards for those that cannot read. Has the world gone barmy! What sort of snacks are you preparing - I bet they only amount to fruit, veg, crispbreads, bread, butter etc. I do not give/cook any meat of any sort and my Environmental health Inspection signed me off as low risk. I recognise that if you are dealing with meats then there is possible an issue but honestly............. yes of course we should be careful but if you had been in my group this week the whole place was awash with germs as all the children had very bad coughs, were spluttering and spreading germs galore - I sent 4 children home and could have sent another 7 but just didn't have the time as I was so busy nursing the others - I did however put up quite a rude note to them all - pleased to say that we were quite a few children down today. At one stage I opened all the doors and windows and got the children to wave their arms furiously to get the germs out - was at my wits end - or perhaps cracking under the strain. Nikki Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 31, 2007 Share Posted March 31, 2007 I agree with you, may be we should all send our children on a training course and we could have the day off! I'm finding my staff members tutor a bit of a pain!!! I'm glad for the upto date advice but this is getting crazy! To make matters worse my staff member does not question at all what she is being told but expects me to implement the changes. Where has common sense gone? I don't want to cause any bad feeling in my work place but i will stand my ground about these issues and i hope that i do not offend my staff member by choosing not to implement the suggestions recently made. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Wolfie Posted March 31, 2007 Share Posted March 31, 2007 Hopefully if you put your argument forward to the staff member about WHY you are not going to send parent helpers on this course, she will understand - a little bit of professional debate never hurt anyone!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aliamch Posted March 31, 2007 Share Posted March 31, 2007 Ofsted has always commented how good it is that children are able to help prepare their snacks at our setting and they've never checked if the children held an appropriate certificate! Karrie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beau Posted March 31, 2007 Share Posted March 31, 2007 Her tutor has told her that Ofsted's new thing to pick at is that parent helpers whom supervise snack situations will need a food hygiene certificate. This is all just hearsay. I'm assuming that no-one on the forum has actually been asked to implement this, or that you know of any settings in your area that have been asked to do this. Sometimes Ofsted may well ask a setting to do something, but this may be specific to the setting and their situation. Perhaps something of this nature has been passed on to the tutor (I have been told, by someone who knows someone whose friend said that.......................!) but the original request and reasoning behind it may have been distorted and misinterpreted over many tellings. I think you need to thank the staff member for the information, but explain how you do things in your setting and how you are already meeting any requirements regarding the safe preparation of food. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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