Wednesday 12 September 2012

12th September 2012



So we have been in Kings Lynn now for a while and our new house for a few weeks and what are my likes a dislikes so far.

Likes are in no particular order:

Sitting in the conservatory.
Having so much space
Kids having nice bedrooms.
The quiet
No problem parking
Watching the birds feed
Helen less tired and much more happy
Schools are close
Traffic is less
Get to places easy
Beach is 20 minutes away
Shopping is good
House is lovely and nicely decorated
Not having to worry about noise we or kids are making as we are detached.
Not having to worry about who might move in next door because we are detached
Slower pace of life
Kids are happy

Dislikes are in no particular order

Being away from friends and family
Noise of music from garden over the back when they are in pool – too far away to hear music but all we get is the thud of the base.
Not knowing anyone yet.

So as you can see the likes far out way the dislikes.

Helen has had all sorts of problems registering with agencies to get supply work. Lets go through the issue. A few months ago she contacted Key Education Services and Norfolk Council.

She provided them with details and then met them in early August so we would be registered by September.

Key would provide her some work but not much, the council was important as once registered there she could go round herself to local schools.

Key worked quickly and got both references needed and all was good.

Norfolk Council however were not so efficient. They received one reference back but the email to Helen’s last Head teacher bounced back. They did not tell us this but instead posted a reference to the school. Only on us chasing did we find this out, obviously the head did not get this until they returned to school in September. Had they contacted us we could have checked the address. It was also not helped by the person dealing with it being away on holiday until start of September and no one else had access to his emails.

Anyhow last week the head confirmed he had dealt with it. This week we ring to see if they have it back and they still have not got it. They rung the school and emailed the reference request. School confirmed they had it. We emailed the head asking if he could turn this email round quickly, he then replied strangely – “this should have been faxed I will check”. So now we do not know if he will email it, or fax it and if faxing does it go back to head office or to the people we are dealing with.

So at this time the Council registration is in limbo and we just do not know when it will be cleared and so much time has been wasted.

Back to Key. We rung last week to check to see how that was going but they had forgotten to request the CRB from Norfolk Council. They said they would do this. Today finally we have confirmation that Helen is registered with them.

During all this time another Agency Ranstad were pestering Helen to register with them, as they had loads of work in Kings Lynn but few staff. We did not want to pay for another CRB but they were so desperate they agreed to pay it. Last week Helen went for interview and filled in forms.

Yesterday we rung to find out how it was progressing and the rep there said they were waiting for Helen to return application, she told them she filled this in on the day. After checking it seems she did and they had mis filed it. The apologised and said they would email out reference requests immediately. Helen spoke to one of the people she put down for a reference that night and they confirmed nothing had been received. We will be chasing this to find out why.

So at the moment Helen is registered with one out of three of the Agencies. The one is the last one on the list of importance and once again it has been a painful process.

I think Helen has learned what I already knew. You need to chase, chase and chase with these things. Treat everyone as being incompetent and you will not be disappointed and you will not waste days and weeks when thinking things are progressing when in fact they are not.

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