Early years regulations 'fail to root out poor nursery provision'

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills is currently consulting on improving the enforcement of regulations in the childcare sector.

But Eva Lloyd, reader in early childhood at the University of East London, said the consultation would do little to resolve problems with failing nursery providers who re-open childcare businesses by re-registering under a new name.

Lloyd’s comments follow a Channel Four Dispatches documentary broadcast this week, which highlighted the lack of information available from Ofsted relating to incidents at nurseries, such as complaints about the setting or deaths at the premises.

“There are things going on, like failed childcare businesses reappearing under a new name or registration, but with essentially the same personnel, which wouldn’t be addressed by this enforcement review,” said Lloyd.

“Some of the biggest issues that need resolving are not within Ofsted’s remit. This issue of re-registration needs to be addressed so that service users can check a nursery's real history.”

Lloyd said the government had made some improvements to regulation, including plans to allow early years providers to request and pay for re-inspection by Ofsted. But she described the decision to hand some early years inspection responsibilities from local authorities to Ofsted as a “nightmare scenario”. 

“Local knowledge is important,” she said. “All these issues are connected and they’re being addressed by government in such a disjointed way.”

Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Pre-School Leaning Alliance, warned that the government is taking a disjointed approach to nursery regulations. He added that Ofsted may not have sufficient resources to increase its work at a local level.

“It’s frustrating because there are some areas of duplication between Ofsted and local authorities, but then there are cases where Ofsted has missed what local authorities have noticed,” he said.

Ofsted responded to the criticisms made by the Dispatches documentary by saying that it is working with the Department for Education to address concerns about failed childcare businesses.

“Ofsted has put in processes to ensure that we take quick and decisive action when we have concerns about a nursery setting,” said an official statement.

“We also carry out more rigorous checks at the point of registration to root out unsuitable applicants, including research into previous ownership and management where a re-registration is involved.

“Ofsted has explained to the DfE that for a new nursery to be linked more clearly and directly to one that has closed, there would need to be changes to the law, and we are pleased the department is working with us to look at how this could be taken forward.”