Tiggers Playgroup Balcombe

Charity Number 1091348

Minutes of Committee Meeting

20^th March 2007

Treasurer’s House, Beech House, Private Road, Balcombe

1. Apologies

Chris Napper, Vanessa Oecken

2. Present

Neville Ashcroft, Emma Fortescue, Georgina Sayers, Sarah Francis, Tracy Roberts, Jackie Burke, Sandra Kirkman

3. Minutes of previous meeting

The minutes were all agreed as read.

4. Matters arising

a) Bags – it was agreed that the Welcome Pack should be updated to include a section to new parents asking for a £10 registration fee which would pay for a Tiggers t-shirt and a bag. The Committee asked Tracy to inform team leaders to collect money from new parents.

Action: George

b) NA said that Andrew Edmonson had asked for donations to his website. It was agreed that as Tiggers is one of the primary users of the site, we should make a small contribution.

Action: George

c) Tiggers DVD. GS gave a poster to SF to be put up on the noticeboard at school. A similar poster needs to be put up on the Tiggers noticeboard.

Action: George

d) Health & Safety at the Parish Rooms. NA had met with Wendy Malkinson and all issues had been resolved or were in hand. JB said that the loo was wobbly in the main hall. NA agreed to inform WM about this, as well as the floor tiles by the front door which were loose.

Action: Neville

It was agreed that next term we should organise & hold a safety meeting directly after a fire drill.

Action: Sandra to liaise with Tracy

e) Parish Magazine artwork. NA to look into making a hand print with the Tiggers logo for the front of the parish mag. NA should give the artwork to either GS or SF to give to the parish magazine ladies at the same time as the next parish magazine entry (mid April).

Action: Nev

5. Staff Issues

Congratulations to TR who would be taking maternity leave at the end of the summer term. EF agreed to check maternity leave entitlements.

Action: Emma

Staff levels: Staff had expressed a need for 5 members of staff for each session. Advertisements had gone out and there had been 3 applicants so far. In the interim period there would be more regular

need for emergency helpers. All emergency helpers would now require a CRB check. This was in hand for all helpers. Chris Napper to give her CRB reference number to NA.

Action: Chris

Staff had asked NA about sick pay. EF confirmed that James Peck had looked into this last year and the staff did not pay enough National Insurance contribution to qualify for sick pay. NA agreed to give a copy of a Tiggers staff contract to Emma so she could familiarise herself with Tiggers redundancy commitments.

Action: Nev / Emma

Staff pensions: EF confirmed that Tiggers was not obliged to offer a pension to staff due to the small amount of hours they worked. However EF said that Friends Provident were a good firm and that she would be happy to assist staff in setting up a pension scheme. The Committee asked TR to inform the staff to talk with Emma if they were interested in setting up a pension.

Action: Staff if interested

Staff appraisals: It was agreed that as in previous years, the Chair and Supervisor would meet with staff for their appraisals. Staff would also be given an opportunity to meet with the Chair privately if they wished.

Action: Nev / Tracy

6. New Policies / Procedures

i. Inclusion Policy

Sarah Manthorpe had advised that some of Tiggers policies involving special needs and equal opportunities needed to be redrafted into an umbrella policy. The Committee was happy for NA to draft this Inclusion Policy with the help of CN and Sarah Manthorpe. Action: Nev / Sarah & Chris

ii. Allegations Against Staff Pocedure

NA distributed a new procedure to cover allegations made against a member of staff or committee. All were asked to proof read return any comments to NA. NA would then and update the P&Ps document by the end of March.

Action: Committee & George

7. Disabled Access

Having attended a recent additional learning needs training course, SM had advised that nurseries were coming under increased pressure to foresee future needs of children and adults with special needs. One issue the staff had identified was the need for better accessibility for the disabled. NA had discussed this with Wendy Malkinson. Wendy Malkinson had met with West Sussex County Council a few years ago and at the time WSCC were happy with the Parish Room’s facilities. However it was agreed that this should be an ongoing issue and that we should look for an opportunity to start a ‘Disabled Loo Project’.

8. Financial Planning

EF had analysed the finances and reported that the accounts were currently on track to allow Tiggers to run to the end of the year. Despite this, EF reported that the education grants and session fees alone were not sufficient to met operational costs. In order to meet these costs, Tiggers would need 27 children to attend each session. However, Tiggers was only licensed for 24 children per session and most sessions were currently under subscribed. Fortunately, the short fall was met by income from the fund raising events organised during the year. This re-emphasised the need for an active fund raising sub-panel. Thanks to JB’s and SF’s efforts over the previous years, Tiggers had a healthy reserve of funds. Indeed, EF recommended that Tiggers could spend a little more on special events such as the end of year party.

As Tiggers’ finances could vary from year to year depending on the success of fund raising events, EF said it was unwise to set budgets for different spending activities. However EF suggested the staff could spend £500 per term.

NA had reported that some staff were concerned about the current system of reclaiming expenses they have when buying resources for children’s activities. EF agreed to look into ways to minimise the financial burden on staff. For example, a petty cash account could be set up. EF was also happy to transfer funds directly into staff bank accounts. Tracy agreed to discuss this with staff to see what system they would prefer.

Action: Tracy

In order to get a fuller picture of the finances, EF agreed to liaise with Jo Cottell to analyse the income and future waiting lists.

Action: Emma / Jo

9. Afternoon Sessions

NA confirmed that there had been an interest from approx. 19 parents from the questionnaire.

EF confirmed that these additional sessions were not financially viable, but that we should try to have as many children as possible. In order to reduce the financial impact the Committee agreed to have at least 16 children per afternoon session. This would mean that the afternoon sessions would not solely focus on older children, but would cater for the same age as the morning sessions.

The format for these sessions was discussed and it was agreed that:

- Timings would be 12 noon to 2.45pm for the children, with an additional 45minutes for staff to tidy up.

- all children who were staying for the afternoon session should have their lunch at 12, supervised by 2 members of staff. Meanwhile the children going home would sit on the mat and leave as usual.

- Children arriving would need to be handed over to a nominated member of staff who would register them and take any details (such as pick up information).

- Once all the morning session children had gone home, the remaining two members of staff would change activities and move equipment safely.

- Children who were staying for an afternoon session would need to have their lunch kept in a cool box. Parents would be informed what lunch boxes should be needed.

- Staff would have lunch breaks off premesis.

- Tuesdays and Fridays were the days currently available, as provisionally agreed with Sue Etheridge.

- A larger pool of staff would be necessary. All staff would be given the opportunity to work more hours and EF confirmed that staff could be paid on an hourly basis if necessary.

- TR confirmed that more planning meetings would be required which would add to the cost of the sessions.

- It was agreed to carry out a pilot during the second half of the Summer term.

- NA said that in terms of Ofsted, we would need to re-register for full day care. We have been asked to produce an Action Plan to show Ofsted how Tiggers will meet the national standards for day care provision. NA had drafted a plan which needs to be finalised. NA also confirmed that Ofsted would then inspect Tiggers very soon after our re-registration request had been submitted.

Action: Nev / Tracy & Staff

10. AOB

Ofsted:

NA confirmed that the staff were happy for an imminent inspection. The inspectors would spend the majority of their time observing children and staff. However they would also examine a number of documents. For example, they would require to see the Tiggers self evaluation form and documentary proof that we had addressed the points they raised at the last inspection.

The majority of the documents the inspectors needed had now been placed in a Quality Assurance folder. However, in order to complete this folder NA required the following:

TR to provide - Parent helper guidelines

- Daily routine

- Staff emergency details forms

EF to provide - Insurance certificates: public liability & employee insurance

SF to provide - Newsletters

GS to provide - letters written to parents

Finally, NA reported a development section was going to be added to the Quality Assurance folder. This would contain the results of a questionnaire to parents that Claire Clarke Jones was drafting.