Ofsted!

[fr3ya21]

Hi, me, my mum and my sister have all worked in early years together for a few years and are opening our own preschool in september
We think we have got everything covered but with it being a family run preschool we are wondering where we stand if ofted ask how we remain impartial if we have a complaint against a family member. We all agree that in that case the child would be the main priority and we feel strongly that we would 100% remain impartial. However without actually having a complaint and putting this in place how can we show this???? Any ideas would be fantastic thankyou

Freya

[Heidi]

Originally Posted by fr3ya21

Hi, me, my mum and my sister have all worked in early years together for a few years and are opening our own preschool in september
We think we have got everything covered but with it being a family run preschool we are wondering where we stand if ofted ask how we remain impartial if we have a complaint against a family member. We all agree that in that case the child would be the main priority and we feel strongly that we would 100% remain impartial. However without actually having a complaint and putting this in place how can we show this???? Any ideas would be fantastic thankyou

Freya

Are you going to operate as a limited company? if so, if you are going to register as a charity, you will still have trustees.
If you are going to run as a committee run Pre-school, you will have a committee and trustees.

You must put a poster/notice on your board stating something such as

'if there is any cause for complaint, please speak to the manager/supervisor, if you are still not satisfied you are able to ring ........ the Chairman of the committee, if the concern/problem is not resolved you can contact Ofsted on....

You can write this up better and write the options/contacts/telephone numbers where people can ring if there was ever a problem.

You should always have a poster/notice saying that parent/carers can contact Ofsted at any time. You can download a poster from the Ofsted website.

You should also put into place policies and procedures stating what the setting will do if there was ever a complain that was serious enough to go above a practitioner's head or whether it was a child protection issue - which may include suspension etc.
What happens if a serious allegation was made against a family member? have you thought who would handle it?
Hopefully, you will never have to do so, but as you say,you have to ensure you are taking every safety precaution you can.

Do you know of any establishments that are operating with family members nearby? (but not too close, they don't want to help you). Perhaps they would share their procedures and give you an idea how you could go about it.

I suggest you get in touch with early years in your area, they will be able to help by sending a representative out (or an business agency that is contracted to them). I'd also ring up Ofsted - they really are very helpful, will give you advice and may have downloads on their site.


Good Luck.