Policy and Politics
Ofsted moves to check nannies' first aid skills after failures found
Ofsted has tightened up its checks on nannies, after an employment agency found that a number of nannies on its voluntary childcare register lacked first aid certificates.
As Nursery World revealed last month, Karen Dixon, managing director of the London Nanny Company and executive of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation's Childcare Group (pictured), went undercover posing as a nanny and applied to join the register (News, 18 March).
She was approved despite having no childcare qualifications, no first aid training and no nanny insurance.
Following her revelations, Patrick Leeson, Ofsted's director of education and care, confirmed in a Radio 5 Live interview that 'there has been a tightening of the check that is made on First Aid Certificates'.
All applicants will now have to 'send their first aid documents directly for verification', said a spokesman for Ofsted.
'Ofsted will cancel the registration of anyone who fails to demonstrate that they meet the legal requirements,' he added.
Mrs Dixon said she is pleased that Ofsted has tightened up its first aid checks but added, 'They are still missing the point. There are still no proper checks carried out to make sure these people are competent childcarers and have the correct qualifications.'
She called the current scheme 'dangerous' and said, 'It is better not to have a system than to have one that is open to exploitation.'
Ofsted reiterated that nannies do not have to be Ofsted registered and that it is a voluntary system, but Mrs Dixon said that 'if they are going to run a system, it needs to be to a certain standard.'
