Rating downgrades 'threaten free childcare scheme'
Derren Hayes
Monday, December 9, 2013
Early years providers say tougher inspections will make it harder for the sector to provide all the nursery places needed to deliver the government's free childcare scheme.
The concerns have been raised in response to new figures published by Ofsted last week that show the proportion of childcare providers rated as “good” or better has dropped seven per cent since the introduction of the regulator’s tougher line on inspections.
Between September 2012 and August 2013, the number of nurseries and childminders rated as good or excellent fell from 74 to 67 per cent. This coincides with a rise in the number of complaint-driven inspections carried out by the regulator.
Only providers in the top two inspection grades are able to provide 15 hours of free childcare to the 130,000 disadvantaged two-year-olds currently eligible for the scheme, which will be expanded to 260,000 two-year-olds in September 2014. Providers receive government funding to provide for the places.
Last month, Ofsted introduced a new inspection framework that will increase the scrutiny of providers failing to achieve at least a good rating, raising fears in the sector that the downward trend will continue.
Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association, said: “Ofsted’s grading is crucial to a nursery especially as they are the sole deciding factor on which providers can offer funded nursery places.
“This downward trend also has to raise questions over the increased amount of provision needed for vulnerable two-year-olds. Fewer good or outstanding nurseries will impact on this provision.”
Tanuku added that the association has put forward an eight-point plan to Ofsted to ensure the inspection system is “trusted, robust and achieves better outcomes”.
Ofsted has previously defended the tougher line on inspections as a way of raising the bar on the quality expected from providers.
The data also reveals that the proportion of providers judged “satisfactory” or “inadequate” increased from three per cent to seven per cent over the year.