Sarah you say the ratio is newborn 1:1, Can i just add that if you go into a nursery Shaz and they show you the baby room and say the ratio is 1:3 then they are not braking the law lol. Most nurseries dont take from newborn but from 3 months onwards and the ratios are as follows:
3months - 2 years 1:3
2 years - 3 years 1:4
3 years - 5 years 1:8
unless they go outside of the nursery, i.e on walks etc, then take 1 of each ratio.
Just thought id clear that bit up incase you got confused hehe.
There, by law should also be a routine up on the wall of each age group, feel free to ask for a copy of the routine, i have also never seen and would never want to see a nursery that has set nappy times including if the child is soiled...at my nursery we have set nappy change times, however if a child poops we will change the child as soon as the smell hits us! a child should never in any circumstance be left to sit in a soiled nappy and if If i went to look around a nursery and saw this then id probably phone environmental health!
Also ask what qualifications the staff have in each room, even if there is unqualified staff there should be qaulified staff allocated to each room aswell, there should always be more qualified staff than unqualified staff in the nursery. Also all the staff should be CRB checked. This is the law, to work in a nursery you MUST be crb checked.
Ask about their rules on food...fruit, water, milk etc...will they be getting a good healthy balanced diet and their 5 a day aswell.
Ask about cleaning, how often is the nursery cleaned, how deep is the cleaning etc, the last thing you want is you're child in an unclean nursery.
There is a few other things but i think Sarah covered the rest
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Also as Sarah mentioned the birth to three matters thing it is unusual for parents to know anything about it themselves so staff could find it easy to tell you anything. Ask them to tell you about the criterea of it, the main aspects being:
a competant learner
a skilful communicator
a healthy child
a strong child
As long as they mention these 4 things and can give you a basic understanding of each one then they follow it properly, if not then its a lazy nursery and they are not following new laws, i would steer clear. They should do observations and make records of you're childs development all through their time at nursery. Ask to see an example of a childs developmental folder. Its alot i know, but you want to know that the nursery is on top of everything
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here is some more info on birth to three for you
http://www.surestart.gov.uk/resources/childcareworkers/birthtothreematters/
One more thing, ask about keyworker systems, in each room staff are allocated certain children and they do their folders, obs, etc. It gives the children consistency, i have never seen a nursery without this system before.
Cassi
