Good Morning Britain report

[FSFRebecca]

I expect many of you have watched the GMB report on the safety of nurseries. If you haven't seen it you can watch it from here.

 

Tulip Siddiq responded to the report today, you can watch her interview here

 

I thought Gill Jones did very well under the barrage of questions from Piers Morgan, she had very little opportunity to put her point across. I wonder if GMB would be interested in a follow up story about how great nurseries can be?

 

I'm guessing that we all feel the same way about the report - but what it raised for me was the potential issues and scenarios that can arise when managers are not complying with regulations - the staff have a responsibility to be 'whistle blowing' about bad practice and are those that don't 'whistle blow' complicit in the bad practice themselves? - maybe they don't know it's bad practice?

 

I know, from my own experience, that when a member of staff was not speaking appropriately to a parent (rudeness, nothing sinister) at a time that I was away from my nursery that my phone was 'ringing off the hook' with my other staff wanting to let me know so that it could be dealt with appropriately.

 

Has anyone else had experience of this kind of thing - when whistle blowing was so important?

[FSFRebecca]

Nursery World have posted about it today too 'Outrage over TV show' as have the PLA and NDNA

[AnonyMouse_14766]

It's really hard to believe that a complete stranger, no checks, gains access to a nursery and is also able to film the children without anyone even noticing!

 

I know funding is a big issue, but if all settings were inspected yearly and went back to no notice inspections, dreadful people like that manager just would have to do their job properly and keep the children safe or suffer the consequences. When I became involved in pre-schools 30 years ago, our social worker responsible for pre-school registrations did just that and made impromptu visits in between if she happened to be going through our village. She certainly kept us on our toes!

[AnonyMouse_19762]

Dear goodness - that made extremely painful viewing

 

Completely agree with Sharky - the old system with LA checks on an annual basis was far more efficient and valuable than our current Ofsted inspection system

[AnonyMouse_19782]

Yes a combination of the 2 might be the way to go! Surprising when they said Ofsted inspects every 4 years - it came across as such a long time in between - but in reality it seems like they are always coming in - when you live with the threat of it.

 

I was sorry that neither speaker managed to get across that until recently we had no warning of visits, and now it's only a day, why do we always get lumped together with schools?

 

 

I have always tried so hard not to put on a show for Ofsted when they are in, it is always warts and all with us.

 

Never an excuse to be cutting corners with staff or volunteers in the setting.

 

I seriously doubt that GMB would be interested in outstanding practice - the old adage Dog Bites Man is no attention grabbing headline however Man Bites Dog is. Piers certainly covered his posterior by saying, of course, there are many brilliant nurseries out there, my own 4 children went to one............. as far as he is concerned it's case closed.

[AnonyMouse_19920]

I agree - the new system does leave it open to "being ofsted ready" whereas the old system made sure you were always ready(hopefully) as you never knew when you opened the door if ofsted would be there.

Also think that having more impromptu checks from LA would be beneficial than anything ofsted can do in what might upto 5 or 6 year gaps.

A setting near us changed Lead and half of rest of staff at the same time and no-one came to check the setting- although setting continued to be good setting - it could have been different.

Edited November 16, 2016 by blondie

[AnonyMouse_30128]

I agree - the new system does leave it open to "being ofsted ready"

actually I disagree with this statement ...we now get half a days notice (rarely more!) unlike schools who still get a bit more (not much I know!) the emphasis on ofsted inspections is now not about what they see on the day but what you have been doing over the last period. So without all your supervisions/policies/training etc etc in place then it's unlikely you will do well. As to frequency we have had two inspections since 2012 for no other reason than timings!! socket covers being uncovered was called in to question....interesting since this is now the advice and CRB's are now DBS' so that wasn't up to date info either...small things I know but relevant none the less. I wonder why GMB chose to do this report now? ?????

[AnonyMouse_19920]

I am sure we will find out why GMB did this report - wouldn't it be great if they spent the day at a setting and listened to managers and staff worries about pay , funding, 30 hours etc., and watched how hard and brilliantly the vast majority of staff work for a low wage!!!!!

[AnonyMouse_22029]

I haven't seen the report so forgive my ignorance.

how did GMB choose this nursery? Did they have information about it being in difficulty and if so who tipped them off? Surely the right thing to do would be ofsted.

hate to remind all about phone hacking but how do we know this was not a set up?

[AnonyMouse_22029]

How many other nurseries did they visit before they got this sensational footage?

[AnonyMouse_55063]

The report seemed to be an attack on Ofsted more than the setting itself. Why they are attacking Ofsted isn't clear at this stage. Do Ofsted need more funding going forward?

 

I am sure Ofsted decided to discontinue "outsourcing" administration of Inspections recently.. ending contracts with Prospects, Serco, Tribal and others. http://schoolsweek.co.uk/ofsted-brings-school-childcare-inspections-back-in-house/

 

These companies "that nobody has heard of" ie Tribal, are extremely huge and have a lot of weight economically and politically behind the scenes. Is this move by Osted, to discontinue their use, created this negative publicity once again.. and that actually Ofsted will once again be required to sub-contract it's workload?

 

Or can Ofsted actually get the funding required to "go it alone" and this is a move to increase it's funding..

 

Just a few ideas I wanted to share..

Edited November 17, 2016 by BroadOaks

[AnonyMouse_22029]

Good Thoughts too. I have just watched the report and agree the attack was on Ofsted rather than the nursery so yes interesting why it was decided to go investigate nurseries? But I do still ask I wonder how many nurseries were visited before they found one that failed?

[AnonyMouse_55063]

I am sure they would have tried a few and then found the perfect footage to use. It is all very strange!

[AnonyMouse_37203]

Sorry I am coming to this thread very late. The nursery in question is up the road from me. I think they were chosen just by virtue of agreeing to take on a 'student'. So it seems that the reporter presumably misled a college as well as the nursery. There was clearly a safeguarding issue where the staff member had not had their DBS but aside from that the nursery were entrapped and I have been reliably informed that the video was selectively edited. The setting is a large rectangular open space and well staffed so it is highly unlikely that she was left out of sight at any point and the footage doesn't clearly show the alleged bucket stilt or rubber band incidents. I have been told the rubber bands are placed with a name stretched around the beakers for milk. It seems unlikely that one of these would have enough give to fit round a child's head and as for bucket stilts who doesn't have these in their setting. So aside from the DBS there but for the grace of God I think. I do think that Gill Jones was hounded, but shouldn't she have slammed GMB for their outrageous tactics and stood up for a profession which in the main does very well by it's charges rather than put huge numbers of children at risk as suggested by Morgan et al.

[Guest]

Yes we have those sorts of stilt things, skipping ropes, elastic bands with name cards to go around milk carton or beaker. There are risks in everything and staff are aware and watch children.