So annoyed with Ofsted

[uf353432]

I applied for a variation on the 20th August and marked it urgent. I chased it on the 21st, 24th & 25th. Went away for a few days and chased it again on the 27th, came home today to find a letter delivered asking my to complete a form for the variation before they would consider it.

So my urgent variation request sent on the 20th was not actioned until the 28th - and even though I gave them all the information they needed in the email - they want me to give them the exact same information on a form and return it to them.

The shocking thing is this a variation for 1 hour, I already have a similar variation in place on another couple of days for a similar time scale for the same increase on my numbers.

What on earth is the point of filling in this form - this parent is desperate for an answer so her child has care for 1 hour a week when they go back after the holidays - I have less than 5 days now to get the variation approved, get contracts signed up and give the child a settling in session before the 7th Sept. Its just so utterly ridiculous - can you tell I am annoyed......grrrrr at the red tape loving weird ass bureaucratic idiots in this country what a joke!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*deep breath* thats better....

[kellym3]

cant say much but thats OFSTED 4 u do agree with your last line though:thumbsup: sorry did not want 2 read an run.

[sarah707]

Can you fax it urgently with your signature scanned?

I hope they get a move on for you. :D

[helenlc]

When I needed a variation urgently, I filled out their form, added some extra info and then signed it. I then faxed it to them. That was on a Wednesday and they got back to me the following Tuesday.

Make sure you mark it URGENT at the top - thats what they advised me to do.

Good luck:thumbsup:

[miffy]

I'd phone tomorrow and try and get the name of whoever deals with the variation requests for your area then fax it marked for their urgent attention.

Good luck

Miffy xx

[uf353432]

I'm going to scan and email it in PDF as don't have access to a fax. Trouble is this variation request comes at the same time as them setting up their new variations team which is live from 1st Sept - designed to make the process of getting variations quicker - lol!

I got a phonecall last week asking me to rate Ofsted - I gave them a very poor score in this area lol! :clapping:

[The Juggler]

How recently were you inspected.

My urgent variation took a week for a phone call and I thoughg great! Then he 'passed it on' to higher up. Two weeks later (too late for me) I got a call from the lady who inspected me asking to visit me to discuss the variation.

I told her thanks but it was too late, the mum had sorted something else out.

Worth a try maybe to call your inspector and explain the situation and see if she can get things moving?

[madasahatter]

I want to join the annoyed with ofsted club too! I applied for and got my variation 3 weeks ago. The certificate arrived but they had got the times wrong. I asked for 8.00 to 2pm and they sent it with 8.30 to 12noon on. I immediately rang up and they said they would print out a new certificate and send it that day so that I had it before I went on holiday. Low and behold it hadn't arrived before we set off (3 days later). Got back yesterday evening to find the new certificate has arrived but still the times are wrong. It was supposed to start tomorrow!!!
Thankfully some of the little ones have parents who are shift workers and I don't actually need the variation this week as will only have 3 LO's at any one time, but it could have been disasterous.
I'll be on to them again first thing tomorrow!!

[rickysmiths]

I find all this very interesting. I have had so many variations over the years; indeed I started my cm career with one for 2 under ones 15yrs ago.

I have had trouble with the time it has taken, I have gone to a panel meeting to argue my case over one and it was granted. I have never had an inspector visit me with regard to obtaining one. I have never filled in a form I have always applied by letter or email.

The last one I asked for was for an emergency; I rang them on the Friday morning needing it to start 9am on the Monday. I submitted a letter by email with a scanned signature on it and by the end of the day it had all been agreed. The only hic up was the email of my Cert didn't come through on the Friday as promised. I rang on Mon am and it arrived in minutes. I had the hard copy of my Cert on the Tues in the post. It was a fantastic response.

I have never had a Variation refused except one and I took it to a panel meeting and it was granted.

Why do Ofsted have to be so different in how they deal with things? Maybe it’s because we are all different? We all have different mixes of children, live in different areas and houses and have different experience in our cm business. Of course Ofsted are the only ones who have the complete overview of us.

[uf353432]

As I said to Ofsted, I find it very frustrating - our livelihood depends on us providing an excellent service, giving information expediently and if we don't we potentially loose the customer. We therefore have a right to expect a response in a reasonable amount of time.

I asked what the leadtimes were for responding - they seem to have leadtimes for when you are inspected, how long it takes to sign you up etc. But because they are setting up this new team they have not decided on the leadtimes yet.

Worse still - I chased this daily - whilst on holiday for this parent and not once did they say - oooh you have a form to send back to us - they all said they would deliver a response on the email, my previous one was done off the email content - but now when its urgent - they want to fill in forms - feels a bit like a stalling tactic to me. Its very annoying.

[misst104]

:mad: How very annoying for you. I really hope its sorted out soon.

X Jo

[Shirlwith3]

Tell me about it I applied for a variation for a lo starting 7th Sept for 2 weeks till my own dd goes full time, I sent my applicitcation by emial with a copy of my signature on the 18th Aug I have emailed again on 24th then phoned Thurs last week was told I would get a call never did so called again on Fri only to be told that the lady I was talking to would email the "variation dept" to say I needed a reply by Wed 2nd Sep as that is when mum is coming to sign contracts, & that I will get a call as she has but is urgent, I am going to call them tomorrow as I really want an answer before Wed morning.

[uf353432]

looks like we have had the same conversations Shirl :laughing: :laughing:

I'll race ya to the finish line :)

[TheBTeam]

I had my most recent variation granted just by letter, but prior to that one that i wanted, i had to jump through hoops for, they made a complete mess of it, even wanting to back track over two amendments they had offered me in the previous 6 months. This went right to the top of OFSTED, because of the imcompetence of the inspector that visited me, i ended up with a phonecall from her boss after it had been right to the top and they bent over backwards giving me far more than I asked for!!!!!:rolleyes:

I do not understand why some people need forms and some a letter, I can understand why some people may require a visit, but surely the method of asking should be standard, ie letter or form or either!!1:panic:

[Shirlwith3]

I have phoned again now been told that the person who will be dealing with my request has the details etc but was told I might not get my answer for tomorrow for when mum comes tomorrow AAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRR:panic: :panic: now they have my request for about 2 weeks now why should it take so long, all I want is a yes or no

[uf353432]

once again shirl - I had the feigned promises that someone WILL phone me today and surprise I didn't get a phone call. humph!

[Shirlwith3]

any newa on your request yet I am going to call again this afternoon as mumreally wants me to have her littl boy who is cute.

[mabel]

I feel for you

I too am in the same situation, waiting for mindee to get into full time ed,
I have had too cancel him (felt awful, mum was annoyed with me) but the
inspector told me it would take a month, and yes I only wanted a few hours
here and there to work round my part time mindees.

I give up now trying to please others,Ofsted are not in our world at all !!

[jeanybeany]

Well this will make you laugh. I got back from hol last week to a message on my answering machine from Ofsted. I rang them back that day and again yesterday to be told the lady that left the message doesn't know why she rang me and will get back in touch when she remembers!

Really!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have since received a letter about sending the wrong form in to be a committee member for my lo's playgroup. It has her name on, so I am presuming it's to do with that, but surely they should know..........:rolleyes: Not going to ring them back again!

[MissTinkerbell]

OMG - I had fantastic experiences over my variations. Wrote letters for both of them. The first one was granted in 10 days; the 2nd a lady phoned me 4 days after me posting it and asked a few questions and then told me over the phone that they would grant it and my certificate would be with me in 5-6 days and it arrived 2 days later.

Hope you all get yours sorted out soon.

[It's a small world]

I emailed them a question about variations and told details passed onto Variation team. Then spoke to them and said they would pass details onto variation team told them thats already been done. That was last beginning of last week. Going to chase tomorrow as may have potential twins and mum needs to know. Probably still need to get forms completed. can't you download them or do you need to get permission first???

Who said life was easy????

[uf353432]

mine was declined because its not classed as continuity of care and he's not a sibling or an existing mindee looking to change hours. For the sake of 1 hours care - a huge shame for the parents - but hey ho! Time to do a new variation now for Jan - for a different child.

[Shirlwith3]

I should get a reply either tomorrow or Fri.
fingers crossed they say yes to it now that uf353432 had her's declined.

[Zoomie]

after completing the form and even attaching my signature, i phoned ofsted yesterday to confirm the email address.

chap said there was a new form, not on the website yet, so i had to wait for him to email it to me.

it had all my personal details on it, so i wont post it here, but i have half filled it in.

after reading the above message, i am not going to bother submitting it and am just going to tell the parents that ofsted wouldn't approve it.

it isn't for continuity of care or a sibling cos it is for a new mindee.

Hopefully they will wait the week, (they said they would), if not, then so be it.

[Mummits]

They are quite mad!
I applied for a variation, got a letter back agreeing what I had proposed and saying they proposed to vary my conditions of registration accordingly ... but if wanted to appeal against this decision I had to write in within 14 days, and if I didn't want to appeal, I had to send a letter waiving my right to appeal. Why on earth would anyone want to appeal against a decision to grant a variation they had applied for? Even if you changed your mind about actually taking the child(ren), having the variation in place doesn't force you to have them!

[Shivvie]

I'm really mad at Ofsted too. I sent in a request in the middle of August, saying that my own little boy is starting school and could I have my certificate changed. I also emailed them with a copy of the letter and got the email back, saying they'd forwarded it to the relevant department.

Hadn't heard anything so I've just phoned them. They haven't got the letter!!!! I think it's got lost in the system with the variation re-shuffle. Why hasn't anyone replied to my email though to at least tell me the letter hasn't been received?

I now have to wait for an email with a pro-forma attached, which I have to fill in and send to them AGAIN, and I have a child waiting to start with me!!!

I'm so angry with Ofsted about this. The service I've received from them has always been dreadful actually and it infuriates me that they can provide such terrible service but we can't grade them accordingly :angry:

Sorry, just had to get that off my chest :)