Too many nursery providers coasting, says Ofsted

The report, Getting It Right First Time, looks at the key attributes of successful early years settings and how their performance has changed since the introduction of the Early Years Foundation Stage five years ago.

It found that since 2008, while the proportion of providers found to be ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ has risen, four out of 10 have failed to achieve a rating above ‘satisfactory’.

The report says they are "simply not improving fast enough”, adding “consequently, too few children start school with the knowledge, skills and attitudes they need to make the most of the next stage of their education".

This was particularly the case among providers in areas with high levels of social deprivation.

The report says: “Satisfactory provision is not effective enough to close the attainment gap sufficiently quickly.”

Between 2008 and 2012, the proportion of providers that have achieved good or outstanding has risen from 64 to 74 per cent. The proportion of children reaching a good level of development has also risen over the period, from 49 to 64 per cent.

The report stresses the importance of early years settings having strong leadership to achieve a rank of ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’.

The best providers were those that addressed problems such as lack of staff training and qualifications swiftly and sometimes in the face of resistance from staff.

The report says strong early years management in this situation “prioritised what needed to be done, focusing first on the things that would make most difference to children’s learning. They introduced new ways of working gradually, in ways that secured the agreement of staff, and they gave new initiatives and changes time to become firmly established.”

Jill Rutter, research manager at early years charity Family and Childcare Trust, backed the focus on strong leadership to improving the quality of early care provision.

However, she said: “Ensuring that the brightest and best nursery leaders remain in early education is undermined by low status and the persistently poor pay in this sector, and the lack of parity between early years leaders and teachers.

“The most recent Department for Education statistics show that senior managers in nurseries earned just £10.60 per hour. If we are to improve quality, we must tackle low pay.”