Closure of childcare finder on Directgov

[pinkbutterfly]

Just had this email from my Early Years and Childcare Service team:

'Closure of childcare finder on Directgov
At 5.30pm on 31 March 2011 the childcare finder search facility on Directgov will be closed. '

The question is WHY??

[marnieb]

I'm Surrey too and had the email this afternoon. No idea why.....!

[jumpinjen]

simple answer........ money...... websites cost money to run, update and answer queries and in the budget cuts it has been cut I think!

It doubled up the job of FIS anyway so just another quango biting the dust..... no great loss ;)

Jenni x

[Andrea08]

nothing mentioned ere in the north west?

[The Juggler]

simple answer........ money...... websites cost money to run, update and answer queries and in the budget cuts it has been cut I think!

It doubled up the job of FIS anyway so just another quango biting the dust..... no great loss ;)

Jenni x

couldn't agree more it's a load of rubbish - never even find myself let alone another minder if I wanted one:laughing:

maybe the local FIS should jsut have their own ones.

[blue bear]

I was talking to the local fis a couple of weeks ago and was told it might be going due to it being too expensive to maintain, we will be going back to the old system which was better thank goodness

[Leapsters]

I wouldn't worry about it. Details of childminders will probably still be kept on the system for parents that phone.
The budget again I guess.

Found out today that National Strategies website support is closing and apparently lots of employees have been made redundant.

Government is trying to save money on the wrong things in my opinon, but hey it does not count anyway, lol...:angry:

[rickysmiths]

simple answer........ money...... websites cost money to run, update and answer queries and in the budget cuts it has been cut I think!

It doubled up the job of FIS anyway so just another quango biting the dust..... no great loss ;)

Jenni x

It did though they took down all the FIS websites so now we will be left with nothing. I for one get 99%of my business from that web site so am very annoyed about it. :angry:

FIS will still hold the info and send it out in paper form. I don't know why they changed everything, it worked well before the government barged in. They are useless at anything to do with computers

[claire'scherubs]

Not heard anything here in Lincs either, however it was a completely rubbish system anyway

Would put my postcode in and I would come up about 5 miles away:eek:

[Playmate]

Well they never did get it right, there are still 33 childminders who live closer to my address than me and my my husband and I were 30 names apart, crazy :angry: good ridance :D We get the majority of our business through childcare.co.uk now if they are internet searching or net mums haven't had a call through local FIS for nearly 2 years!

[appleblossom]

It did though they took down all the FIS websites so now we will be left with nothing. I for one get 99%of my business from that web site so am very annoyed about it. :angry:

FIS will still hold the info and send it out in paper form. I don't know why they changed everything, it worked well before the government barged in. They are useless at anything to do with computers

Our FIS still have a website but for childcare search it just links to the Directgov site. They still send info out to people looking for child minders who ring them. I don't have my phone number on the Directgov site, it's the FIS number on my records. So hopefully FIS will list us on their site like they used to.

[Blaze]

Im in Surrey too & got the email - good riddance I say - wish they had just left the ************* one alone - if it ain't broke & all that!:rolleyes:

marnieb where abouts in Surrey are you based? :)

[Playmate]

Im in Surrey too & got the email - good riddance I say - wish they had just left the ************* one alone - if it ain't broke & all that!:rolleyes:

marnieb where abouts in Surrey are you based? :)

Here here blaze :clapping: can't help thinking about how much money was wasted on this :angry:

[marnieb]

Im in Surrey too & got the email - good riddance I say - wish they had just left the ************* one alone - if it ain't broke & all that!:rolleyes:

marnieb where abouts in Surrey are you based? :)

Worcester Park - and you??

[Blaze]

Near Caterham :)

[Leapsters]

Have you registered with www.childcare.co.uk
Most of my business comes from there and word of mouth of course

Sandra

[georgie456]

I'm glad this website is closing - it's an absolute joke and should never have been changed from the old *************.gov site which was fab.
It has been a disaster from start to finish - what an utter waste of public money.
Since it changed over, I and all my colleagues have not had a single enquiry through FIS so it's no great loss in our area!!

[kentcfis]

I agree about the difficulties of the recent site closure - it wasn't fun for us FIS either...

apparently it had 40,000 hits per day but DCSF/DfE never supplied FIS with usage stats so its hard to say but i am sure that some people would have had calls out of its existance albeit not obvious.

on another note about never having calls via your local FIS - we launched a new report today for kent based providers to see how many times we have supplied their details on lists to enquirers... we hope to do the same for web hits later so that providers have a true picture of how much FIS syndicate your information - FIS limitation is down to some providers not giving consent so its always worth exploring if your maximising your potential.

For Kent providers - here's a link

http://fisonline.tribalhosted.co.uk/Kent/Publications/ListCount.pdf

remember to log in and keep your details up-to-date to increase your likelyhood of being called... there's no point calling a provider who last updated their details a year ago.

Anything else the FIS community can do to help let me know !

[Eddisonsmum]

Thanks kentcfis

I'm in the process of registering and awaiting my pre reg visit now. Once I have the registration cert do I just give you call with my details?

also, Who do I speak to about my exam results from the pre briefing sessions? X

[kentcfis]

Hi Eddisonsmum,
Once your application is in with ofsted we are automatically made aware of your 'proposed application'... once the pre-reg visit is complete and OfSTED make their decision about activation/refusal etc we are once again informed and our service will make contact with you.

A questionnaire to obtain details will be issued and within that is a consent form that will allow us to advertise you - ensure you sign it otherwise we cannot advertise you.

in regards to the exam results you call call the NCMA direct or through ourselves should you wish to find out (assuming they are available as yet)

Kent CFIS


Thanks kentcfis

I'm in the process of registering and awaiting my pre reg visit now. Once I have the registration cert do I just give you call with my details?

also, Who do I speak to about my exam results from the pre briefing sessions? X