Minutes of General Meeting – 16th February 2011
Members attending:
Christine Dale MBE (Chair), Helen McCasey (Treasurer), Maggie Douglas, Sarah Blevins, Dawn Oliver, Anne Wroe, Julie Bundock, Amanda Carter, Helen Greenhough, Chris Burgess, Liz martin, Sue Wynne Jones, Marion Wood, Kath Wright, Angie Hague, Lindsay Hegerty, Katie Noon, Rachel Cole.
Apologies: Thank you to all that sent apologies.
General Note: All correspondence will be via e-
Please ensure that apologies are given before any meeting so that these can be recorded in the minutes.
1. Welcome to everyone.
2. Last meeting’s minutes proposed by Sarah Blevins, seconded by Angie Hague.
3. Secretary vacancy. Due to the secretary resigning her position it was felt we would carry on with a volunteer taking the minutes until the September AGM. Thank you to Maggie Douglas for taking tonight’s minutes. Christine apologised for some of the dates and venues not being confirmed. A new diary will be sent as soon as Christine has found new venues.
4. Sponsor money. Boscma donated £50 to Karen Dougherty who was raising money for Beechwood Cancer Care. Karen recently held a fund raiser for Beechwood as her very dear friend has cancer. Karen has so far raised £3,000.
5. Ofsted. There has been 37 Ofsted inspections in Stockport since the beginning of 2011. We asked members to email in and come along to the meeting to share their experiences with other members. There were a few points that were raised by inspectors that members who are due an inspection should bear in mind.
; Risk Assessments need to be in depth and detailed and include indoors, outdoors and every day activities.
; Medical permissions, if you are using the old NCMA ones make sure your parents have signed their names in full and not just initialled them as Ofsted are looking for full signatures.
; Parental Responsibility this must be included in your paperwork.
; Use a visitor’s book. Ask your inspector to sign it.
; Fire evacuation and Fire Drill Ofsted need to see that you perform these and are looking for a date and who was present the day you did your fire drill.
; Complete or at last try to fill in your SEF.
; Check your certificate and make sure you are not over minding.
; Carry emergency numbers with you.
; Recycling. They make ask you about ‘sustainability’, they actually mean do you and the children recycle.
; Policies and permissions, they will thoroughly check all of these so please make sure they are relevant to you and your setting and not just copied and pasted from the internet.
; Children’s starting points. Make sure you know your children. Their staring points and next steps will be checked.
; Working with other providers, ie Nursery schools. Ofsted will want to see proof you actually do this.
6. Funding for ARM. Boscma will fund 10 members at a cost of £23 per person for this year’s NCMA ARM in Blackpool in May. Members will be asked for a cheque for the cost and this will be returned to them on the day if they attend. If for any reason they do not attend the cheque will be cashed by Boscma.
7. Courses. Members were asked to email or write to Janet Brightmore if they had any complaints about the way bookings are taken over the telephone. Janet said she cannot make an official complaint unless she has it in writing. A few members recommended courses, in particular anything put on by the Portage service.
8. Funding Cuts. At the time of the meeting the Early Years team were unable to confirm any funding cuts.
9. April meeting. This meeting, the venue to be confirmed, will now be a training session. The training will be delivered by the Orchard Training Partnership and will be centred around ‘Treasure Baskets’. Places are limited to 25. Christine will again take the first 25 bookings by email or telephone. Boscma will purchase a free resource to put in your basket.
10. Early Years Team. The team sent their apologies.
AOB. General discussion took place about promoting and marketing BOSCMA. Suggestions to advertise, spread the word, to make it known that as a BOSCMA member you are on a database where your details are held for potential parents in your area. Quick discussion on EYFS review. Direct.gov will be off line at the end of March.
Next meeting
Will be a Training Session,
‘Treasure Baskets’
Date and venue to be confirmed.