Advertising before registration

[Rmead]

Hi everyone,

I sent my registration forms to Ofsted at the beginning of November. I'm waiting on crbs and pre-reg visit which I expect to be done by mid-January (I hope!). I was wondering if it's ok to advertise before it all goes through? I've created my website and designed leaflets but as they say I'm registered I wasn't sure of advertising yet. I need mindees asap once I'm registered and it sounds like some people seem to advertise beforehand.

Thanks

[TinyTinker]

I did advertise before being registered, but made sure all my adverts said opening soon or in process of registering etc. I put leaflets through doors, launched my website and had ads on all small business directories and on childcare.co.uk. I didn't hear a thing until 4 weeks after I was registered!

I was registered on the 18th Nov and during the first 3 weeks of December have signed up 4 mindees and given my notice in at work ready to start in 3 weeks time!:clapping:

Good luck! you never know you might find someone who doesn't need someone at once that will be willing to wait for you to be registered:D

[flowerpots]

i also started advertising before i was registered, i was full with people waiting just as my reg certificate came through and was full with mindees within the month. you def find people are willing to wait for you if they think you are the one for them. good luck :clapping:

[Louise0208]

please be aware that not all areas are so quick when it comes to registration......it was 7 months from my ofsted visit to receiving my CRB & then another month for my cert to come through :mad:

in doing so i lost 2 sets of parents due to the delay :( so please dont go telling parents 'it should only be a few weeks' :rolleyes: i must of come across a real let down!

i dont mean to put a dampener on things, sometimes its nice to have both sides.....i wish someone had warned me :p

good luck :thumbsup:

[Rmead]

Thanks all, I might rejig my website to not say registered and say opening soon and just advertise from word of mouth linking to it. Leaving the leaflets.

Gosh Louise that's terrible, I had no idea it could take that long. Did they say why it was so delayed? When I spoke to them when my form had been received and was being process they said up to 12 weeks...

[the happy house]

I'm in the process of re-registering after a 2 year break. 8 weeks after sending my reg forms off I had my visit. But 8 weeks after my visit I still have no certificate! So while it may be fine to start advertising and saying you are in the registration process, don't get your hopes up about it being any time soon.

[Louise0208]

Gosh Louise that's terrible, I had no idea it could take that long. Did they say why it was so delayed? When I spoke to them when my form had been received and was being process they said up to 12 weeks...

i was told 12 weeks max aswell, Ofsteds had no explanation, trust me i phoned countless times to see what they were dragging there feet at.

you can check the progress of your CRB online or phone them & they will give you a ref number to check :thumbsup:

i was well prepared as i was a childminder before & knew the process & i posted everything off within 24hrs of inspection......it really angered me that no-one would tell me what the hold up was :censored: