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Essential Qualifications

Most out of school clubs will need to be registered with Ofsted on the Early Years or Compulsory Childcare Registers, or both. To satisfy the statutory requirements for settings on these registers, an out of school club needs to have staff with the following qualifications or training:

At every session you must have:

• A first aider holding the 12 Hour Paediatric Care First Aid qualification
• The session supervisor and setting manager should hold a full and relevant Level 3 qualification
• Half of the remaining staff must hold at least a full and relevant Level 2 qualification

Among your staff — and ideally at every session — you should have:

• A designated child protection person, who holds a Child Protection Level 1 or Basic qualification, and who has attended a Child Protection Designated Person training course

Among your staff you must have:

• A designated SENCO (special educational needs coordinator)
• A designated member of staff responsible for behaviour management issues
• One member of staff with a Food Handling and Hygiene Level 2 qualification
• A designated ENCO (equalities named coordinator) [required by many local authorities but not a statutory requirement]
• A Fire safety officer is not a statutory requirement but it is a good idea to have a named person taking responsibility for fire drills and record keeping

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Providers of essential training

12 Hour Paediatric Care First Aid qualification
Your first step should be to contact your local authority. Some local authorities run first aid courses for a significant discount—or even for free— for individuals who meet their criteria.

The Red Cross runs a 12 hour first aid course for child carers at various venues around the country, for which the fee is £88.00 (+VAT).
www.redcrossfirstaidtraining.co.uk

St John Ambulance runs a 12 hour paediatric first aid course at various venues around the country. The fee ranges from £75.00 to £110 (+VAT) depending on the location.
www.sja.org.uk

Numerous training companies across the country also offer first aid training. Try entering the search terms "12 hour paediatric first aid" into Google.
www.google.co.uk

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Relevant Level 3 qualification


If further training is required to reach Level 3, your first step should be to contact the Early Years service for your local authority which should be able to advise you about the courses available in your area and what funding is available. Visit www.childcarelink.gov.uk or ring 0800 096 0296 to find your local office.

SkillsActive has a very useful matrix of progression pathways in Playwork which shows which Playwork qualification is appropriate for different playwork job scenarios and amount of previous experience. See www.skillsactive.com

The National Extension College (NEC) provides distance learning courses for a wide range of childcare qualifications including the Certificate in Children's Care, Learning and Development Level 3. The course costs £467.10 if you order it online. Note that you may well be eligible for funding.
www.nec.ac.uk/childcare

The NEC also offers a Diploma in Playwork (Level 3) which costs £929.00.
www.nec.ac.uk/childcare

The Childcare Company provides distance learning training for the childcare industry. Its CCLD Level 3 course costs £1,800 and it provides assistance with securing funding for your course.
www.thechildcarecompany.com

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Relevant Level 2 qualification
You can check what qualifications are acceptable at the Children's Workforce Development Council website (but see the note on 'relevant qualifications' above).

If further training is required to reach Level 2 your first step should be to contact the Early Years service for your local authority which should be able to advise you about the courses available in your area and what funding is available. Visit www.childcarelink.gov.uk or ring 0800 096 0296 to find your local office.

The National Extension College (NEC) provides distance learning courses for a wide range of childcare qualifications including the Certificate in Children's Care, Learning and Development Level 2. The course costs £387.90 if you order it online. The NEC also offers a Certificate in Playwork Level 2 which costs £499.00. Note that you may well be eligible for funding.
www.nec.ac.uk/childcare

The Childcare Company provides distance learning training for the childcare industry. Its CCLD Level 2 course costs £1,500 and it provides assistance with securing funding for your course.
www.thechildcarecompany.com

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Child Protection, SENCO and ENCO training
Your first step should be to contact the Early Years service for your local authority which should be able to advise you about the courses available in your area. Visit www.childcarelink.gov.uk or ring 0800 096 0296 to find your local office.

The costs of courses run by local authorities are generally heavily subsidised, and many local authorities also provide bursaries to cover the cost of attending their SENCO and child protection courses (eg to pay for cover staff at your club while you attend the course).

The NSPCC runs some child protection courses at its Leicester training centre, and has some distance learning training packs.
www.nspcc.org.uk

SAFEchild offers two online child protection courses: an introductory course suitable for all staff, and a course for designated child protection officers. Members of the Out of School Alliance can book these courses at a special rate of £20.00 each. (How to claim your discount.)
www.safechild.co.uk

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Food Handling and Hygiene Level 2
Again, your first step should be to contact the Early Years service for your local authority which should be able to advise you about the Food Handling and Hygiene Level 2 courses they are organising in your area. Visit www.childcarelink.gov.uk or ring 0800 096 0296 to find your local office.

The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health has a useful 'course finder' tool for finding food handling and hygiene courses in your local area.
www.cieh-coursefinder.com

Alternatively, there are lots of opportunities to study for the Level 2 qualification online. For example the Virtual College and High Speed Training both offer an online course for £25.00 (+VAT), and Train4Food for £29.00 (+VAT).
www.food-hygiene-certificate.co.uk
www.food-certificate.co.uk
www.train4food.co.uk