When submitting an application to vary your ratios all tiney childminders will need to update and add to their risk assessment to evidence that you have considered all aspects of risk and how you will manage a new variation of ages of children, to adequately meet all of their needs confidently.
You can add this to your current Risk Assessment, or choose to start a separate one for your current ratio variation.
You will also be expected to update your Emergency Evacuation Plan (Fire Risk Assessment). This document is to outline your plan and the steps you would take in the event of a fire or emergency, to evacuate the premises with all children in your ratio safely; and what does it mean for you to increase your ratios. tiney will want to see how childminders have thoroughly planned getting the children out of the building safely in the event of an emergency.
Here's some clarity ...
Risk assessments should identify aspects of the environment and the day that will need to be checked on a regular basis, when and by whom those aspects will be checked, and how exactly the risk will be removed or minimised.
It is helpful to clearly think about the specific ages of the children that you are applying for in the variation application, and try to really go through each day that you know you would be over ratio to assess how you will be managing this to ensure safety and each child's needs are met. This helps us understand your reasoning and support your application
Need Help with creating your Risk Assessment for Ratio Variations?
We have listed a few gentle prompts below to help you with how Ratio Variation risk assessments may need to be tailored. Please note that this is not an extensive list, the list is not thorough and we do expect all tiney childminders to provide a risk assessment which is specific to their setting, children and routines, elaborating in detail on any of the headings / prompts given by tiney.
Template:
Activity / daily task / place/ room / item
| Potential Risk | High / Medium / Low Risk? | Precautions taken to reduce risk | Checked by: (initials) Date: (date precautions checked) |
Outings to the library |
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Morning group activities |
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Prompts to Expand on (toggle me)
Prompts to Expand on (toggle me)
Meal times
Nap times
Outings
Pick Ups and Drop Offs
Managing transitions
Managing space
Nappy changes or taking children to the bathroom with an increased ratio of children
Particular needs of the child(ren) which might mean less time somewhere else, and how to manage this
