NCMA retaliates against Ofsted childminder criticism
Gabriella Jozwiak
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
The National Childminding Association (NCMA) has hit out at Ofsted after the inspectorate claimed that too many childminders are struggling to provide sufficient early education to children.
In an open letter to the inspection body, the NCMA said it was “disappointed” by suggestions that childminders are not capable of delivering the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), made by Ofsted’s chief inspector and national director of education following the publication of the watchdog's annual report.
“NCMA wanted to publicly state how disappointed we were to hear both Sir Michael Wilshaw and Sue Gregory use their annual lecture to argue that registered childminders are not up to the job of delivering the EYFS and to raise the idea that they should be exempt from some of it,” said the letter.
Signed by NCMA’s? joint chief executives Catherine Farrell and Liz Bayram, the letter argued that Ofsted’s request that government should consider whether it is appropriate for childminders to deliver the entire EYFS does not reflect inspection ratings received by childminders.
“Ofsted's own analysis of inspection reports reveals that 61 per cent of childminders are graded good and 10 per cent outstanding, just three or four percentage points behind childcare on non-domestic premises,” the letter said.
Farrell and Bayram warned that removing childminders from the EYFS system would be a “retrograde step” that would let down “the thousands of children and families who choose childminding because of the personalised and flexible childcare it provides”.
Earlier this week, Sue Gregory used Ofsted’s annual lecture to say that childminders need more support, reiterating a suggestion in the annual report that childminders should form networks with other group childcare providers, to improve their services.
“Ofsted’s data shows that childminders who work in networks, or who access quality improvement schemes, generally have higher inspection grades than those who do not,” said Gregory.
“Quite simply, improvements in the quality of childminding are more likely if childminders have greater access to support, advice and training from other professionals in early years who have already demonstrated that they can deliver good and outstanding provision.”
