HappyMaz

And the only way to get through it all is to have a sense of humor and take it with a pinch of salt.

Doesn't that make your ears really itchy though Beth?

anyone out there

There may be many reasons why you haven't had much response, phoneme. I don't know how many members here are from your area, for one thing. However perhaps you need to look at the information you have provided so far - does it maximise your chances of grabbing the attention of members local to you and make them want to apply? How many responses you might have expected from the same advert placed in your local newspaper?

Just a thought!

Maz

Oh dear Beth what a time you've been having!

Glad to hear you haven't lost your sense of humour though, and you're stll enjoying work!

Maz

I'd take advice from the Local Authority to find out what their advice is about excluding children because they have headlice - latest advice here is that you can't exclude children because they have headlice any more than you can because they aren't toilet trained.

If you think the child is suffering from neglect then you need to talk to the parent to find out what is happening - as janny1960 says mum may just be overwhelmed and there may well be other pressures on her that are making it difficult for her to cope. As a parent who has really struggled with headlice over the years I know only too well how difficult it can be to keep on top of - you only have to let up for a short while before they've taken over again.

Mum may need support to get to grips with her child's headlice problem - whether it is information and guidance from you, visits to the doctor or from the health visitor, she needs a sustained, regular programme of treatment to get rid of them finally. It might be as simple as writing treatment dates in the home/school diary if you have one, or gently reminding mum of what she needs to do and when.

Its hard to advise really because we don't know what your relationship with mum is like - these things are often case dependent because what works with one parent might not work with another.

Good luck - hope you get it sorted.

Maz

PS Why don't you let children wear hats indoors?

of course if I was recruiting it would depend on lots of things not just the piece of paper!

This is at the heart of things really - you need to look at the job spec and how each candidate measures up. You may have an EYP and someone with a level 3 and find that the Level 3 is eminently more suitable!

Maz

Even heard today that we received a Level 1 in our recent Early Years Quality Improvement Audit - a much needed pat on the back for a lot of hard work by our staff team.

Things are definitely looking up then Deb! I'll be interested to hear how you get on with Superfox!

Maz

I've temporarily made miche11e's post invisible since her health promotion pack includes some materials which are covered by copyright. Hopefully she'll be able to confirm that her purchase agreement enables her to freely upload the pack here soon and then we can make it visible again.

Maz

and the best bit is that it is sitting on my desk at work waiting to be installed.

Am jealous, Deb!

Isn't it interesting how one Local Authority's approach varies to another? BrendaS your system seems much fairer to me - often children aren't ready at the beginning of term to do five sessions, but after a few weeks they may well need more.

Maz

Thanks BMG I did have a good look yesterday - I shall have to lobby my Local Authority. It looks like a great tool which would reduce my monthly operating costs, especially since it appears to do salaries as well!

Maz

Hope this is helpful and the link works!

It certainly does!

Welcome to the Forum, Sprogit if I haven't welcomed you before!

Maz

There is nothing quite so comforting as finding out that others have the same OCD tendencies and passions for stationery, paperclips, post-its etc as you do!

Went to Ikea yesterday and treated myself to another work bag but this one's USP is that it will hold my outsized laptop. So I couldn't leave without it could I? Now I just need to seek out all its older and fuller colleagues to set myself up for going back to work...

Maz

Eidted to say - I checked the link and it doesn't work, sorry. Hopefully someone will come along and post it properly for me! Or you could copy and paste the link into your address bar.

Can't see anything wrong with your link, so have added one to see if this works!

http://nationalstrategies.standards.dcsf.g...sults/nav:81851

Just going to test it now!

Maz

PS The link works in that it takes you to the place I intended, however I'm not sure if this the page Laila was talking about. Perhaps there's nothing wrong with your link Laila, but something about the way you attached it? Let me know if you'd like to compare methods!

Welcome to the Forum, vhct and congratulations on making your first post.

Which course are you studying? Lots of people are studying at the moment, so I'm sure there will be someone who can help!

Maz

I like the look of this Superfox stuff - can you buy a personal copy or just through an LA subscription?

Maz

Happy birthday - hope the sun is shining on you!

Maz

Can we look at it another way? What if the funding was £2.50 per hour and the fees were £3.00 per hour. What would your calculation be then?

20 x £3.00 I imagine.

Maz

Nicky it does sound to me as if you're beginning to see the wood for the trees and your post sounds much more positive and philosophical about things than previously.

Your life coach sounds as if she's having an excellent effect on you and therefore on how you're supporting your girls and your ex-husband. Also your absence from school seems to have shaken their thinking up a bit too, so hopefully they've been able to reflect on how they can make things better not just for you but for the whole staff team.

I'm glad to hear that your ex-husband is beginning to make progress, even if it is slow.

Take care of yourselves and I hope the rest of the Easter break is restful and restorative.

Maz

I think your first port of call should be your Local Authority to see what they advise, zlw.

You're quite right in saying that it is no longer acceptable to show the free entitlement as a deduction on your invoice (I think this is in the existing code of practice for offering the free entitlement). However I know from what members on here say that this practice is widespread, and so I imagine some Local Authorities are not too worried about this. Ours certainly has been for the last couple of years or so.

My invoices currently just show my fees for the additional half hour per day, and when we move to the 15 hour entitlement it will just show any lunch clubs taken.

However, a thought has just occurred to me. Currently if a parent claims less than their full entitlement, but subsequently decide after headcount day to take additional sessions, we charge them at the full published fees. I imagine this will continue after September (always supposing there are no other additional shocks to come from our LA), but this will mean that parents will be paying more for these extra sessions than the funding would be - a bit galling for parents, I would think.

I wonder what the code of practice says about parents claiming for sessions they don't intend to actually use?

Maz

Yes, I appreciate that. Our vicar was arrested in November for child porn and he was CRB'd, so nothing is a guarantee, is it?

No, but at least it would show up on his next CRB, and he would presumably not be able to register with the ISA, and so would not be able to get access to children via a group such as yours or mine in future.

Incidentally will we still need CRBs when we are registered with the ISA? It has always really irritated me that I need half a dozen CRB checks for my various activities and I had hoped that being registered with the ISA would mean I wouldn't need extras in future. However I think I read somewhere that CRB checks would still be necessary under the new vetting and barring system.

Maz

Oh yes Cait! From what I've seen some of the formulae are very hard to follow!

As Panders says, the Government is committed to providing a free entitlement rather than a subsidised entitlement, so that is why the voucher scheme is a non-starter.

My Local Authority decided not to apply to become a pathfinder scheme, which means that the extra 40p an hour that would have been available to my group has not materialised, leaving us very precariously balanced financially. Even if my parents were happy for me to withdraw from offering the Nursery Education Grant funding in order to keep the group afloat, I can't imagine many new 'customers' would be happy at the prospect of losing their free 15 hours.

We already do three hour sessions, so basically if I am going to make up for the shortfall in funding I need to encourage as many children to stay for lunch, and take as many unfunded children as I possibly can. Neither of these options are in the best interests of all the children who attend my group.

Maz

I suppose because she's a good friend and a neighbour whom I've known for 27 years, in this instance. Quite a few of the Preschool parents are 'children' I used to teach needlework and cooking to at school ..... back in the days

But none of these things are guarantees that they are suitable to work with children.

Currently we don't get our occasional parent helpers CRB checked, but will keep this under review pending what the ISA has to say about what constitutes 'regularly'. However with the prospect of a personal fine for not getting someone checked out, I think we may well see a blanket policy being adopted by many settings because of the perceived risks, even though there is still a debate raging whether the ISA will make our children any safer.

Maz

I gave an EY2 to a parent helper and I'll not get it back, and she's not volunteered any more. Not because she's got something to hide, just because the form has totally put her off. I offered to do it with her but she said 'No thanks, I'll just not bother'.

But here's the thing Cait - how can you be sure it was the form putting her off and not the knowledge that something would be thrown up by the CRB process?

The whole business of frequency of volunteering is a bit cloudy, in my opinion - hopefully before the ISA comes into effect they will clarify it once and for all.

Maz

Sooo thankfully ( I have to finish positively dont I ?) I found this site and only hesitated fractionally when they wanted £'s too !!!

I may be biased, waveawand, but I have to say that the £20 membership subscription was probably the best investment I ever made. It will be repaid many times over not only in the quality of advice, documents and information available from everyone on here, but also in the friendship and support that you can access 24 hours a day, every day.

Welcome to the Forum - make yourself at home and I hope you find a way through your current dilemma soon.

Maz

I've just looked at the download area, and can't see a mobile phone policy. However here is what the website says about copyright:-

Copyright notice

Purchasers of the relevant publication are at liberty to copy this material for their own use. In all other aspects, the copyright remains with the Pre‑school Learning Alliance. The Alliance will commence legal proceedings against any organisation or individual that circulates the contents online or otherwise without prior permission.

The question here is whether the format and style of the template is covered by copyright. As I said, Steve and Helen will need to be the final arbiters in that respect!

Maz