Who should a nursery be registered with?

[Sarah13]

Where should I check that a nursery is legal and registered etc? I've found a lovely little nursery that is kind of cross between a childminder and nursery but now I'm not sure where to check for the inspection and legal kind of stuff! The lady was lovely she owns 3 small nurseries locally and employs nursery nurses and they are all big houses with a kind of homely vibe to them. The one I plan to use the owner also lives there but half the house is the nursery. I really liked it and want to book K in but as it's slightly different from the massive nurseries and not a child minding service either so I don't know what or where to check!

 

[clairebear22]

Ofsted is your best bet hun. Go onto their website and either type in her name, Ofsted registration number (she should give it to you if you call her) or the name of the nursery. If she doesn't come up then i'd ask her who she's registered with x

 

[Belfast girl]

its HIME in scotland, used to be called the care commission. if you google either of them it should come up with all the reports etc!

 

[Sarah13]

Thanks. OFSTED must be for England and wales as it didn't show anything near my house! Tried the care commission and it's on there as a child minding service. It had one 'weak' grading but when I looked into it, it was to do with staff filling out medicinal paperwork, or something like that. everything else was good and very good and the whole report seemed quite positive. Strange how these things work as the other child minders who I saw and didn't like thier facilities etc so much had better 'grades'! How much attention should you pay to these kind of things do you think? All the nurseries I looked at had very good or excellent. This child care thing is so hard!

 

[Sarah13]

Thought I'd add the care commission link incase anyone else needs it as I know a few of us are looking just now
http://www.scswis.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=24&Itemid=489

 

[Titch85]

Any child minder or nursery has to be registered with Oftsed or similar. Nannies can do it voluntarily, like I have.

Nurseries don't get warning that Ofsted (or similar) will be coming for an inspection. So it could be that they just turned up on a really bad day, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's like that all the time.

At my last nursery the care got an 'outstanding' but the office side of it was marked 'poor' so overall we only got a 'satisactory'.

I just found this online http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-17438473

 

[Belfast girl]

i only looked at 2 nurseries! the one that we didn't like had 'excellents' in every aspect - but it was huge, had been through several changes of management and some of the girls were texting on their phones!

they also must have jumped to conclusions about us as they pushed the 'educational' aspects of nursery down our throats as we saw it when i was pregnant and straight from work in our suits!

the one we ahve gone for was very good in most and good in the office side but now getting to know the owner a bit better - she is clearly quite disorganised but in a good way iykwim?

oh i also spoke to the primary school in our catchement area and they rated our nursery, even though they didn't mention about the children all being able to count etc (i happened to know the p1 teacher there)

it depends what you are looking for but i just wanted somewhere warm and caring and as much like our home as possible so was happy to overlook the chaotic office side!

gosh - an essay - you can tell emma is on one of her settling in days and i am childless

 

[l_maclean]

I don't rate the care commissions (or what ever the heck they are going by now!!).

Firstly If the service is registered as a childminder - they are told of inspections in advance as they could be out with the kids.

Secondly, having worked in adult care homes, it's easy to have things run differently even if they do turn up unannounced.

Also a big chunk of grades are based on paperwork and perfect paperwork would make me question how much time is spent with the children, and poor paperwork doesn't necessarily mean poor care.

Xxx


On my iPhone - so cant see tickers

 

[Sarah13]

Thanks, I was thinking the same thing that bad paperwork doesnt mean poor care, and there seems so much of it these days. I suppose you all you can really do is visit the place and see how you feel. It was clean and inviting, lots of toys, a garden and home cooked food plus the workers were nice.