Hi all
First post so please be gentle! been reading for a while though.

My situation is that I have just started work a couple days of week at a pre-school with the hope that I will be funded to do NVQ2 level soon.

The pre-school has seen dramatic staff changes in the last 12 months due to a failed OFSTED inspection (supervisor left)but the new supervor brought it back up to scratch. Unfortunately she then lost the deputy, quickly followed by a non returner off maternity leave and loss of temporary staff. The supervisor has managed to keep things ticking over (used agency staff) and as said recently she got a new deputy (NVQ3) , full time assistant (NVQ3) and me as part time assistant (no qualifications - science graduate and mum!!). Anyway, assistant (NVQ3) lasted a couple of weeks (kept not turning up etc), and then this week the deputy has said she will not be returning after the summer hols (familiy issues). I hasten to add that all these staff issues have nothing to do with the supervisor (great lady, hard worker, kids and parents love her etc). When we had issues with the full time assitant not turning up we tried to employ another NVQ qualified staff but no-one applied for the job! So a temporary member of staff (worked at the preschool before so crb checked etc) returned to cover and has since been offered the job. We definately need a NVQ3 level deputy and just hope that we manage to find someone before sept (or its back to agency staff which are mega expensive!). Hope you are all following this...
so to conclude we have
Supervisor nvq3 (and BEd)
Deputy - will have to have NVQ3
Full time assitant - no qualifications to start NVQ2 asap
Part time assistant (me) - no qualifications to start NVQ2 asap

However, supervisor now has read in the guidelines that the supervisors have to have nvq3 and half of all other staff must have nvq2. So are we correct in saying we dont have the correct number of qualified staff (not that we can find any!!!). Does trying to get qualified/trained not count?

Other thing is I have just got back my crb check this morning. I have never toileted or been alone with the children so far because of this. Now I have it I know I can toilet etc but am i allowed to be alone with the children even though not qualified?

Thanks for any info or advice. I am loving the job at the moment and we had just got to bonding and being a good staff team only to have to start all over again! Shame.