Feedback on NCMA Professional Occupational Standards

[Penny1959]

Many of you who kindly filled in my research questionnaire on NCMA membership asked for more details about the Professional Occupational Standards that NCMA are curreently consulting on.

In fact both members and non members showed an interest and said that if NCMA introduced these they would be more likely to remain a member or join NCMA. (which is why I am posting in general chat rather NCMA membership)

So the first thing to say is I can not give the detail about the content because NCMA are still consulting on them and there will be changes made at each stage of consultation.

The meeting that myself and Carol M attended yesterday was the last one in the current round of consultation (have been several in different areas before this one)

All the feedback from the consultation events so far will now be used to make changes to the documents - and then the next round of consultation will take place with members at the Regional Forums in Jan /Feb

The final stage (from my understanding) will be an online consultation via the NCMA website.

Now this bit is important - the idea (at the moment) is that in the future all NCMA members will be required to 'sign up' to the Professional Occupational Standards' and will self assess to one of 3 levels.

Therefore as many members as possible need to go to the Regional Forums to give input into this important document.

As I say I can not give you much detail - but this will give you an idea

There are 4 main areas and these are then split into sections And for each one it says NCMA members will:- ........ There are then 'ideas' / 'examples' of how this might be done - and then skills and knowledge needed. Every think is linked to other current documents such as Ofsted ones.

However nothing is finalised and so the end product may look a bit (or a lot) different.

Information and updates will be available from NCMA so keep you eye on the NCMA website and in particular the members section 'My NCMA'

If anyone would like a copy of the DRAFT document - please email me and I will send to you (in my effort to remain confidentiality I had deleted emails addresses - and so when read 'Please send me Professional Occupational Standards' I had NO idea who wanted them). However as this round of consultation has just ended it might be better to wait for the document to be update- as my understanding (after yesterday) is that there will be quite a few changes.

Penny :)

[Playmate]

Thank you for sharing Penny :D

[rickysmiths]

Thank you Penny it all sounds very complicated to me and a sure way to drive more cms away from NCMA especially the older members. I think they may soon be having to think of a new name. They seem to want to represent all and sundry.

I wish they would stop getting so convoluted and get back to the grass roots of childminding and increase their membership.

[Penny1959]

Thank you Penny it all sounds very complicated to me and a sure way to drive more cms away from NCMA especially the older members. I think they may soon be having to think of a new name. They seem to want to represent all and sundry.

I wish they would stop getting so convoluted and get back to the grass roots of childminding and increase their membership.

I think as they are carrying out the consultation they are realising how unique childminding is and certainly the bits we looked at would not reflect the practice of foster carers or nusery workers - especially as none of the other childcare sector works have the responsibility for aspects of their business.

Also as I said the feedback is actually that most welcome these standards as a way of evidencing just what it is a registered childminder does day in and day out - far more than an Ofsted grade does as that does not cover the whole range of tasks, skills and knowledge that are required to be a registered childminder.

In fact RS - I think you might like them - they recognise the skills we have, the knowledge we have and all those 'extra' things than often go un mentioned - like intution when a parent needs to chat or off load, when to change activities or experiences because a child is unwell or stressed and being able to manage a very mixed age range (and much more).

Yes it will take a while to get head round but they are written in clear English and with clear examples.

Penny :)

[Carol M]

And from what I have seen and heard, I really like what is happening and I'm looking forward to seeing the final document.
I think it is a good step forward for NCMA and their members.
Carol xx

[christine e]

Thank you Penny it all sounds very complicated to me and a sure way to drive more cms away from NCMA especially the older members. I think they may soon be having to think of a new name. They seem to want to represent all and sundry.

I wish they would stop getting so convoluted and get back to the grass roots of childminding and increase their membership.

The Professional Occupational Standards are being drawn up because the membership asked for them - there use to be quality standards (think this is what they were called) but they were scrapped a few years ago because they were too similar to the standards that Ofsted introduced (the standards we worked to before the intro of EYFS).

Cx

[Penny1959]

The Professional Occupational Standards are being drawn up because the membership asked for them - there use to be quality standards (think this is what they were called) but they were scrapped a few years ago because they were too similar to the standards that Ofsted introduced (the standards we worked to before the intro of EYFS).

Cx

You are right Christine they are called Quality Standards - AND are still there! (just checked on ncma website) - all members are supposed to work to them - but not a lot is said about them nowadays - apart from ccf networks who are assessed against the same headings as the Quality Standards.

Penny:)

[christine e]

You are right Christine they are called Quality Standards - AND are still there! (just checked on ncma website) - all members are supposed to work to them - but not a lot is said about them nowadays - apart from ccf networks who are assessed against the same headings as the Quality Standards.

Penny:)

The Quality First was based on these standards and of course that has been scrapped. So, the Professional Occupational Standards will replace the Quality Standards at the request of members because they considered they were dated.

Cx

[Penny1959]

So a bit of a recap - bringing together all the information in this thread

For many years all NCMA members have been asked to agree to work to a set of standards - these are called Quality Standards

The Quality First and the ccf networks were all based around these same Quality Standards.

Therefore thousands of NCMA have been working within these standards for years.

Members have asked NCMA to introduced some updated professional standards.

Therefore NCMA are now carrying out extensive consultation with their members to ensure the new Professional Occupations Standards reflect the work of their members.

Once introduced the Professional Occupational Standards will replace the Quality Standards.

Penny :)