Thursday night, 9 pm. I receive an email from a childminder, asking me when my next Paediatric First Aid courses are running. I sent back the dates and information, noting that the next course is on Saturday, literally 36 hours away, and commenting that this will be too early given she’ll need to complete 6 hours of e-learning before the course to meet the qualification requirements.
By 9.15 pm, she’s booked on the course on Saturday. Her email back requesting the last available place says that she’s booked to go on a different course this Saturday, but that “the guy doing it has said because we have done it before, he will give us the 12-hour face-to-face certificate for doing 5-6 hours face-to-face and no online work”. Some, less scrupulous childminders might have jumped at this opportunity – a 12-hour certificate for doing only 5-6 hours of work – fabulous! But not this lovely childminder.
For those not in the know, this qualification is an Ofsted requirement and childminders cannot childmind without it; it has to be renewed every 3 years, so many have completed it multiple times. The course content is mandated by Ofsted (and, because my qualifications are regulated, Ofqual) and as trainers, we have to cover all of the topics and it has to take 12 hours, of which a maximum of 6 can be e-learning. The conditions for providing the course are very strict. This provider was offering to not just bend the rules, but break them in half.
So what, though? What are the consequences? If the childminders have done it so many times before, why worry about shortening the course?
- They are compliant with Ofsted and could get removed from the childcare register.
- They have paid for a 12-hour qualification, and are getting a dumbed-down version.
- In my extensive experience of training this course, you can’t adequately cover all of the content in 5-6 hours, even if they have done it umpteen times before, so some topics aren’t going to get covered.
- Their insurance is probably also invalid.
- If something went wrong, how would the childminder feel? What effect would that have on their mental health, if they didn’t feel competent to act with sufficient skill or knowledge and that had consequences for the child? What about the child’s parents?
- Possibly just as bad – even if the childminder did react with skill and competence, would they forever question whether they had done everything they could, given they took a big shortcut with their training?
The reason this childminder gave was, “This isn’t sitting very comfortably with me, as if I ever got in a situation where something went wrong and I hadn’t covered the right amount of training, I would never forgive myself.”
This doesn’t just apply to Paediatric First Aid. Businesses contracting companies to deliver their first aid training can come across similar moral dilemmas – go with the company willing to cut corners which might save a bit of time or money, or know that everyone has the confidence and competence if their skills were called upon?
If you’re going to spend time and effort, make sure you’re getting the full monty!
