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Setting up

Employing the right people

Having chosen your business structure and where you will be located, the next thing to think about is who will run the out of school club. Will you manage the club and supervise the day-to-day care of the children yourself, or will you separate the roles? If you choose to separate the roles, both the manager and the supervisor of the out of school club will have to undergo suitable person checks before being approved by Ofsted, these include CRB checks, health checks and references checks and need to be completed before Ofsted will register your provision.

Staffing ratios

Assuming that all goes well, you should next consider your other staffing requirements. These will in part be dictated by the number of children you are registered to care for, and the staffing ratios laid out in detail in Appendix 2.4 of the EYFS Statutory Framework.

For out of school clubs, the statutory staffing ratio is 1:8 for children aged between 3 and 8. There is no statutory guidance for the staffing level for children aged over 8 but it must ensure that the children are kept safe and it must 'not be detrimental' to the care of any children at the club who are under 8. The usual recommended level is a ratio of 1:10 for children over 8.

You also need to have a minimum of two staff on duty at any one time.

Your staff need to be in place before your club can be up and running, so don't leave it to the last minute: without staff you have no club, and therefore no customers and no business.

Safe recruitment practices

When recruiting staff it is essential to adopt safe recruitment practices:
  • Have more than one person interviewing
  • Ask for an application form to be completed in writing
  • Check references and qualifications
  • Get appropriate CRB checks.
To make things easier for you, we have put together a selection of employment-related documents so that you can quickly start recruiting for the staff that you need, including templates for adverts, job descriptions and application forms. The pack also contains template paperwork for managing your staff, such as time sheets and appraisal forms. See the Employment and Management pack page for more details.

When your premises, staffing and business structure are in place and you are sitting waiting for Ofsted to process your registration, there are still a few other things to consider.

< Back: Finding suitable premises Next: Equipment needed >

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