I had been going to Amanda’s for 18 months, sadly the service has deteriorated hugely after the move and expansion from her home to the new premises. Approx 9 staff left over the period of about 8 months due to reasons I won’t mention as I only have verbal accounts from some of the ex staff, however the fact so many staff have left in such a short time should speak for itself. In addition my daughter made comments towards the end on how she felt some of the staff were not being treated very nicely as she overheard comments between Amanda and some of the now ex staff . Within the new premises work to the older children’s room has not started so they have no space of their own as promised, in addition the building opened without heating in some of the main childcare rooms, no hot water throughout and no outside space sorted for the day care all of which are not ideal given the money paid. The final straw for me however was as a result of so many staff leaving Amanda did not have enough staff to take and pick up my daughter from her school anymore whilst she was recruiting, however she only told me this on the Thursday of last half term for the following Monday, no forward planning at all which is disappointing and unprofessional, given she knew they were leaving. I work full time and my partner works away, we have no family near by. I was devastated to find out via an unsympathetic and somewhat cold text at such short notice and spent a very desperate 24 hours trying to find a replacement, which I’m pleased to say I have, no thanks to Amanda. Initially she didn’t give a timescale how long this would be for, then she told me in a further text it would be a few weeks no actual date was given however! Ofcourse she continued to pick up children from her sons school, ensuring her personal life impacted on her business, not caring what happened to some of her long standing loyal customers Including myself and several other parents whose children went to a different school and were meanwhile left high and dry. I asked Amanda for a refund which she gave for the final week of the month, however after asking for weeks, she has still not provided me with a reimbursement for the retainer fee I paid over half term, despite breaching contract and not providing the service that the retainer fee is supposed to secures in advance. In addition I have found out from a friend of mine who’s daughter was going to Amanda’s also that she was told she didn’t have to pay a retainer in the summer holiday, when I was told I had to (and did) and she paid a lot less in retainer fees in general than me, I appreciate her child was not using the service as much as my daughter was so this may be less, however when I have asked Amanda for her actual mathematical working out of this fee to ensure equal proportionality several times, she has not been able to provide me with an answer, which leads me to believe she probably makes fees up as she goes along. Every month I had to double check my invoice from her as she consistently tried to overcharge me and I had to recalculate and provide her with the actual amount I owed, in addition she has not provided me with a copy of my contract or her complaints policy despite me going via Ofstead out of frustration after asking her for weeks. Ofstead told me to write and request this within 28 days as legally required, however this ran out on Sunday 14th April, meaning I am now going to have to go back to ofstead and allow them to pick this up as I have still not received. One final but very important comment she has been recently inspected by Ofstead around Feb time and been given an ‘inadequate’ in all areas with safeguarding concerns a major theme, please look up on the Ofstead website as it looks like so far she has failed as legally required to post this latest report on here and has not provided parents still attending her childcare as far as I’m aware with a copy of the report. She has an action plan to put things right, which I hope for the sake of those still using her service she does, meanwhile I am putting my issues around lack of contract etc in the hands of Ofstead to resolve

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