Ok I'm fore warning you this is a rant!

After only working with a mindee for 13wks I was inspected and graded Satisfactory with a few goods in there. Needless to say I was pretty peeved as I was doing all the paperwork they request us to do and know my stuff as I am a qualified NNEB. Her response was that as I hadn't had my mindee for long I couldn't show progress thro EYFS as he was 6mths old.

Now a few friends have had their inspections and all got GOODS even tho 3 of them have had mindees for less time than I'd had mine and do exactly the same amount and type paperwork as myself. One CM was graded GOOD and he does NO paperwork other than his SEF! How do Ofsted validate this?? Is it purely luck of the draw on the day? Why are they all not doing their jobs exactly the same as their colleagues?

I'm now stuck with the crappy tag of satisfactory yet I do a ton of paperwork, why bother

Unfortunately this is not unusual - inspectors do things in very different ways and inspections are not consistent.

You do it because you care for the children and you are trying to do a good job... keep going because that is what will set you apart from others in your area when parents are looking for childcare.

hugs xx

Can you appeal, why should you be marked down because of the age of your mindee & how long they have been with you?:mad:

It just isn't fair that this happens, and it seems that nothing has changed even with the new EYFs and inspectors, as we all know it is the luck of the draw with the inspector you get. Dont let it put you off as you know you are a good childminder and parents will see this

Inspections are a very hit and miss affair these days. Mine is due in March(no phone call yet) and I've just had a letter from our local NCMA saying that they have noted that I'm due an inspection and did I know that the percentage of minders getting a 'good' in our area has dropped quite alot since Sept 12 and are offering training to help but what is the point as we all know that there is no consistancy in the way we get inspected-I really do think its time for Ofsted to get its act together. After 23 yrs of living and breathing c/minding and doing all (and more) that is asked of me I have decided that IF I get downgraded then I will pack the toys away for good and I won't hesitate in letting the inspector know too(after being graded). I really love my job and have greeted all the changes over the years, jumped through Ofsted's hoops and danced to their many (varying) tunes but now sadly feel that I have had enough of it all-at times I feel it takes over all my waking hours , totally draining. xx

Inspections are a very hit and miss affair these days. Mine is due in March(no phone call yet) and I've just had a letter from our local NCMA saying that they have noted that I'm due an inspection and did I know that the percentage of minders getting a 'good' in our area has dropped quite alot since Sept 12 and are offering training to help but what is the point as we all know that there is no consistancy in the way we get inspected-I really do think its time for Ofsted to get its act together. After 23 yrs of living and breathing c/minding and doing all (and more) that is asked of me I have decided that IF I get downgraded then I will pack the toys away for good and I won't hesitate in letting the inspector know too(after being graded). I really love my job and have greeted all the changes over the years, jumped through Ofsted's hoops and danced to their many (varying) tunes but now sadly feel that I have had enough of it all-at times I feel it takes over all my waking hours , totally draining. xx

If you do pack it in - and I truly hope you don't - consider taking your feelings about the way Inspectors treat you (and us too) to the newspapers. The general public don't realise what we go through for this job, and the inconsistency of how we're inspected. Let's face it, you'd have nothing to lose and I can imagine it might feel really satisfying!!!

Oh that's an idea! My friend and I have often said that once retired a book on 'the life of a registered childminder' would really give the media and general public an insight on the 'behind the scenes going ons' we have to endure in order to provide quality c/care including the hours we put in after all the lo's have gone home ......
then let people dare to say that £3.70 an hr is too much to pay for top rate care for their children in a loving,caring,safe, fun and educational home-based environment!!!!!!! If they do then there would be a sequel! xx

How frustrating....a CM I know and meet up with occasionally was worrying about her inspection and after chatting I realised she had absolutely NO idea about planning/obs/EYFS/development matters and didn't use them,had not done a sef,etc...said i'd pop round to go over it with her...she had a last minute ofsted inspection and got the same grading as me...Good with Outstanding elements (I have 11 years experience as a nursery nurse)

Now she is a lovely,caring person and i'm sure they were very impressed with her setting but I must admit I was more than a little surprised after what she'd told me about her paperwork,I was worried all day that she would get 'inadequate' then a re-inspection...feel like a spiteful moo now:blush:

We hear this sort of thing far too often. I knew someone whose inspection was due after the previous changes, so I mentioned to her about observations etc and she looked blank, we chatted further and she didn't even have a register! well, after a weekend with another minder making up paperwork, so had her inspection and got a good. So unfair, have seen her since, she does the same observation for all the children!

More annoying is the nurseries don't seem to have to do half of what we have to do for the same grading. I wonder if they get told off for not working in partnership with the childminder. A parent whose child I have after preschool had a meeting to look at her learning journal. There was a section were she wasn't doing as well as mum expected,they explained it by saying they didn't have the right resources to be able to say if she could do those things!

I was one of the first inspected under the revised eyfs in my area in early october and was told that the inspector did not ever grade childminders outstanding. despite all my hard work, brilliant children and every scrap of paperwork you could ever dream of the inspector stayed almost all day so she could find some reason to mark me down. she found two very minor points and i got a good!

that's not fair at all.

I only had EYFS children in the holidays when I first started minding. I'd only had them for one half term week so Ofsted visited for my first (and only so far) inspection - on the first day of the next holiday so that I would be with them. The inspector brought her inspector as she was being inspected. The children (twins) were completely intimidated as they had only spent 3 days with me in the previous half term holiday!

We somehow got through it and the inspector took into account the circumstances - so I think it's terribly unfair they way you've been graded. Is there anyway you can ask for another inspection after a few months? There should be.

I was inspected 2 wks after starting minding I had been registered for 7months and my co minder had been minding ft for 3 months we registered at the same time, she said she only gave satisfactory on a first inspection all our paper work was fine learning journeys good etc but she took my co minder out of the room to look at the paperwork all labelled so I had 5 children to supervise on my own! 2 being under 1's for most of the day the inspector took 6 and a half hours to do the inspection and we got saddled with a satisfactory she moaned we hadnt got rooms full of toys even tho she said we were covering all the areas with the toys we had out on that day. and the one thing she pulled us up on was we had put permission on a medicine form and not consent and this was the only thing and we got satisfactory we lost 50% of our children in september due to not getting a good and becoming acredited to take funded 3 yr olds. she didnt take into account the children were happy or how we were with the children she was just bothered about paperwork if I knew then what I know now I would have appealed but Id been minding 2 weeks and thought all inspectors worked the same way!

My friend, in another area to me , was inspected the other week an was graded satisfactory and was told this was because she hasn't done her sef, she said the inspector apologised and said her hands were tied :-(

Sarah's Jellytots x

I have permission on my medication form, when I had pre reg the inspector then told me how to do my form as I had two one for prescribed med and one for un prescribed and she said this would make to much paperwork !!!!! We can't win :-(

Sarah's Jellytots x

Has anyone apppealed and if so, what was the outcome? Seems to me like lots of us have bad experiences, but I haven't read a single post to say they've been reviewed or changed?

I was reluctant to appeal in case I got downgraded as in another inspectors opinion i could have had a different bit of paperwork worded slightly wrong!

If they want us to word things in a specific way why don't they just produce a set of forms that we have to use. I wouldn't mind if we had to pay for them, well worth it to make sure we are doing tings right, and would also make the inspectors life easier as they wouldn't have to look at each person indivdual version of a form but just see the same form from us all.

I got satisfactory as only minded for only 2 1/2 months on a part time basis and that I had no special needs training or resources for special needs children, did say that I couldn't offer one on one care but Mrs o said I should do it !!!! So angry as paperwork etc was in order, another woman by me got good the other week and she is fag ash lul (sorry any smokers) and had one baby who has now left !!! #angry x

Sarah's Jellytots x