Children and Families Act: Childcare and early years

What is happening?

The new legislation makes few changes to current childcare policy, but the reforms do allow for the introduction of two key measures:

Who does it affect?

The reforms to childcare policy will have an impact mostly on childminders and other childcare providers, but neither is required to work under the new provisions and their decision to adopt the new policies is entirely optional.

Implications for practice

The Department for Education is yet to publish guidance on childminder agencies, so little is known about how they will work in practice.

The new arrangements are being tested by 20 organisations - mostly local authorities - but evaluation of the scheme has yet to be published.

However, the DfE states that the purpose of agencies is to provide support and business advice to individual childminders in a bid to improve the quality of childcare.

The implications of paid-for inspections are a little clearer. Childcare providers will be able to request inspections at any time, giving them an opportunity to make swift improvements and restore their reputation should they be downgraded by Ofsted or receive a disappointing judgment.

Unresolved issues

Childminder agencies have been a topic of concern for early years professionals since the idea was put forward in the More Great Childcare report in January 2013, with the absence of any clear-cut information about the initiative only adding to their doubts.

The biggest area of concern among the sector is Ofsted's proposed inspection arrangements, which make registration with the inspectorate optional for individual childminders who sign up to agencies.

Ofsted has consulted on its proposed framework for inspecting agencies and testing its draft arrangements on the 20 organisations taking part in the government trial.

The findings of both the consultation and the trial inspections are expected to be published in the spring.

Liz Bayram, chief executive of the Professional Association for Childcare and the Early Years (Pacey), has been against childminder agencies from the very beginning and has particular reservations about how they will be regulated.

"Pacey remains firmly opposed to childminder agencies and does not believe they will improve the quality of childcare children receive," she says.

"We believe individual childminder inspection is the best way to ensure quality for children and to demonstrate quality to parents. That said, agencies are now established in law, so it is vital the regulation and inspection framework that will govern them is robust.

"Pacey is focused on ensuring this framework, now being by finalised by the government and Ofsted, supports quality, safe childcare for children and that it ensures any childminder who chooses to join an agency receives effective support services."

Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Pre-school Learning Alliance, shares a similar concern.

"While we accept that these latest changes now place childminder agencies permanently into the landscape of early years provision, we remain concerned about the potential safeguarding implication of plans to focus on inspecting agencies rather than individual childminders," he explains.

"Finally, we ask that childminders are supported and given choice about how they operate in the new environment. The alliance believes that they should freely exercise their right under the latest legislation to join an agency without pressure or disadvantage."

The National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) has campaigned for the introduction of paid-for inspections for some time. Purnima Tanuku, the organisation's chief executive, welcomes the fact that the act makes them possibile, but is concerned about the lack of an official date for implementation.

"NDNA has fought a long campaign to make paid-for inspections available to early years providers," she says.

"Now, finally, the act has made it a legal possibility and we would like to see them implemented as a matter of urgency.

"We believe providers being able to pay for an inspection rather than having to wait sometimes for months will encourage settings to make swift improvements and reduce the long-term negative impact a downgrade can have on the business.

"Focusing funding on 'good' or 'outstanding' settings gives early years providers a very strong incentive to deliver the high-quality childcare Ofsted is looking for and they should be given every assistance they can to achieve this."

An Ofsted spokesman has said the inspectorate is looking at ways of taking the policy forward.