No Support For Oput Of School Club

[Guest]

Hi all

 

Well the cuts have surprised me yet again!

 

Here in Notts we have advisors for pre-school supervisors, SEN advisors for pre-school, advisors for committee of pre-schools but there is nothing for out of school clubs (mind you I know that there have been cuts here too).I have been in contact with the LEA to see if there is any support for us ie could do with chatting to an advisor about how we do things, staff issues etc etc but apparently they all got made redundant last year. So noone to talk to about the issues that arise at club. Perhaps when club is taken over by school we could just make our own rules up???!!

 

There is no-one now to say if we are doing a good or bad job (unless OFSTED walk in). There are no qulaifications in playwork or training. I have to get staff to go on all the Early Years training.

 

So at the moment there is no support whatsoever.

 

Is anyone else in the same boat?

 

Thank goodness I have this forum to come to to ask questions as I dont think I would get an answer from anyone else!

 

Moan over!

[AnonyMouse_8466]

It is shocking really. We all need advice sometimes, so where will you go if there is no-one within your LA assigned to you?

 

And how on earth does the LA think they can work with settings to reflect on and develop their practice if groups like yours don't have access to an adviser?

 

It is heartbreaking to think of those advisory teachers and development workers who are victims of the spending cuts - where will it all end?

 

Chin up marley - as you say, at least you can come on here and canvas opinion whenever you need to!

[Guest]

Hi

 

We have partnership advisors here in Coventry and we are working with SACERS to improve our service. Is there anything you wish to share and I could put to our advisor on your behalf?

 

Regards

 

AM

[Guest]

Thanks for that anne marie. Its just knowing if we are doing things right etc. We used to have an advisor that would come do a review, talk to staff about where we could improve etc Now its all down to me to try and find things out from others. I am looking at trying to make connections with another out of school club to share ideas/support etc. When club gets taken over by the school then I hope there will be a bit more support from the staff there.

 

I have emailed the LEA and they say all they can offer us is a playworker to come round and give us ideas about activities to do! Not quite what I had in mind!

[Guest]

Please feel free to ask me any question. I may not know the answers but will find out for you. I have recently taken over as manager of our OOSC. We come under the governence of the school. As I said before we are working through the SACERS to assist us in improving and I have just sent out children's and parent questionnaires to try and get some feedback. I will PM you my email address so you can contact me.

 

AM x

[Guest]

Hi

Have just emailed you! What is SACERS and what sort of thing do you have to do? Is it a quality assurance thing?

[Guest]

hi

I am sorry to hear you no longer has access to an advisor who specialises in out of school care, fortunately here in Rcimond we have an authority that still values its specialist advisors although I now work as part of the sport and leisure dept I work closely with the Early Years team. I believe that the LA has a duty to support all settings that are registered on the early years register so someone should be available if you qualify under that category, sadly they won't have the specialist knowledge you need. I spend a lot of my time promoting and advocating for play based provision, and qualifications just to make sure everyone knows that we have a very important role to play in the patchwork quilt of childcare that parents need it isn't just about early years although if you look at the regulations you would think it was. We need to make a stand for the rights and needs of children in the older age range.

Play Development Mnager