DO YOU TAKE PICS ...ICO

[bunyip]

Yes, I think it is fair to question why we pay it, but to do so whilst simultaneously fulfilling our legal and social responsibility to pay.

I pay my tax and NI, whilst at the same time questioning why so much of it is wasted on bombing parts of the world into rubble and maintaining weapons of mass destruction (oh, sorry - got my Newspeak wrong there. They're our WMD, so they have to be called a"viable military deterrence.")

As far as ICO notification/registration is concerned, asking "what do I get out of it?" is the wrong question. It's not there to provide you with some sort of service, unless you regard proving that a CM is operating legally as a service in itself. Owning a driving license doesn't provide you with a service, but it does show you've fulfilled a legal obligation. Paying your Ofsted fee is not really that much different (just harder to get away with not doing.) I'm sure there are plenty of illegal unregistered minders who could equally argue that paying Ofsted for a certificate (just another piece of paper? just another way to get money out of people?) wouldn't make them any better at looking after children, and that would be true - but would it make it the right thing to do?

As I understand it, the ICO was set up to regulate all data handling. It ensures that no business (not just us CMs) is allowed to abuse the data they hold on us - and that is a huge amount of data in this age. Government decided that part of the cost of running the ICO should be met by the businesses that benefit from holding and using that data, rather than the entire bill being met by the taxpayer in general. It does receive some additional support from public money (as well as from fines levied on offenders). So, yes, we do pay for administration, but we only pay a partial contribution to the administration of an organisation that protects and regulates the data we benefit from, and the data that is held on us by other businesses.

Every time this subject comes up, I'm shocked by the duff information coming out from DO's and what some CMs rather blithely overlook in the EYFS too.

[phoenix2010]

just to clarify , I do have it , but Im still allowed to question it

and you cant compare it to paying for OFSTED

we pay OFSTED and they inspect us , do a report on us and hold our reports on their website so that parents can find and judge our worthiness

so its not the same at all in my opinion

I still fail to see how paying the money and getting a certificate safeguards childrens data , it doesnt