Advice please ! Complaining about ofsted

[lady luck]

Hi all I just wanted some advice. I have been registering as a childminder since last July. I first sent my application online at the beginning of July and also sent my health deceleration form in by post a couple of days later. I gave it a month for ofsted to get in touch with me about my registration so decided to give them a ring. They didn't receive any of my forms so I re did them and sent them by recorded post. Since then I paid the registration fee and for my dbs checks to be carried out. They were compleat at the beginning of November and now I still waiting to be registered. I phone them every week and they say they are waiting for my partners social services checks to come back. They only sent these off in November. Mine came back last week. They said they are chasing it weekly but I think I've waited a very long time and I'm quite upset about the whole registration now. Would you write an email to complain and do you think it would get me any further with my application. xx

[FloraDora]

It must be so frustrating!
To be honest though it doesn't sound like ofsted themselves are holding up your application, but the dbs checks, which they can do nothing about.
It wouldn't harm sending an email about your predicament though as, in my experience, they do respond swiftly to these and you will have their reasons in writing why their 'aim' of completing the registration in 12 weeks hasn't happened.

[Tulip]

How infuriating!
Best advice I would give you is get everything ready, policies, risk assessments and all the other stuff so that when you start childminding you hit the floor running, keep yourself busy and pour all your energy into that :)

[shortstuff]

I waited for oh's ss reports too. In the end I phoned ss personally and they sorted it. They said they hadnt recvd any of the chasing ofsted had done. The link in the 2 computer systems wasn't working properly. That was in 2012 so you would hope they had sorted it ny now but maybe not?

So maybe try phoning ss directly and outline your problem x

[Nickidela]

I'm in exactly the same boat. I applied in April and although I did finally get my pre-registration visit in August, they then requested loads more information - all mine was back really early it was just my husbands we were waiting on. I should be getting another pre-registration visit in the next few weeks because it's been so long since the last visit. By all means complain - I complained twice over the past 10 months but it doesn't give them the kick up the backside you'd hope. On the plus side though all my paperwork is in place including all my toy boxes organised and labelled so I agree just use this time to be totally prepared.

[sarah707]

Unfortunately this is not an unusual story - frustrating and irritating yes but not unheard of things can move very slowly.

The best thing to do is to keep chasing - ring Ofsted / SS whatever is slowing things down and keep chasing. Never assume something has been received and acted on without checking.

hugs xx

[lady luck]

Thanks for your advice . I Rang social services this afternoon and have been informed that they never received any request for my partners social service checks. The lady on the phone was very helpful and asked me to phone ofsted and ask them to send her an email request and she would personally do it as soon as she receives it. I rang ofsted to ask them and was told that they originally sent the request off in September but also since sent it in February. I spoke to an inspector and asked her to send it while I was on the phone to her and also gave the inspector the lady from social services direct number. Hopefully this will be sorted a bit sooner now I'm going to phone both social services and ofsted again on Monday to see whats happening. I have also sent ofsted a long email which lets them know that I'm really not happy at all. All I can say is this is not a very good start to my career as a childminder and I'm thinking of changing my profile name to lady not so lucky as it fits better lol x