Parental control requesting password and no notification sent to parent

i only set this up yesterday and must have gone wrong somewhere- issues I am facing are:

when he requests an app, it makes him add my Apple password twice

it then says it will send me a notification to approve

I don’t receive a notification and the app doesn’t download

there is nothing pending in my account setting to approve so now he has an iPad with no apps!

I’ve tried to change the settings that say ‘always require password’ but it’s greyed out and I cannot select… other than create a new Apple account for my son and start again (not 100% the same thing won’t happen?) - does anyone have any ideas how to resolve???