Early years sector joins call for Ofsted changes

The charity Early Years Alliance, which represents nurseries, preschools and childminders, wants a review of the grades given by Ofsted inspectors.

The charity conducted a snapshot survey of early-years staff which found that many found the inspections stressful.

Ofsted says it knows that “inspections can be challenging” and wants them to be “as constructive as possible”.

Teachers’ unions have called for inspections to be suspended after school principal Ruth Perry took her own life.

Kindergartens, preschools and childminders are assessed according to different standards than schools, but also receive an overall grade.

They are rated as excellent, good, needs improvement or fail as the lowest grade, which can result in a school being closed if the council decides to withdraw funding.

The nursery’s owner, Zoe O’Malley, says she and her staff have had “sleepless nights” since an Ofsted report in December rated her nursery as “inadequate”.

She said the inspection was the “worst day of my life”.

The Ofsted report states that protection at Busy Bunnies Day Nursery in High Peak, Derbyshire, was not effective because “not all staff understand how to protect children from radicalisation, female genital mutilation and child exploitation”.

It also said babies were being given “too much toothpaste” which posed a “risk” to their health.

Zoe believes a six-hour visit did not provide a “full overview” of the nursery and that some of the concerns raised could have been addressed “on the spot”.

“Inspections are important,” she says, but staff have found it difficult to answer questions about protection “while caring for children,” and one has since left the sector over the impact on them.

Each family was asked by the council to allow their child to remain in the nursery pending another inspection by June.

Ofsted said inspections are “primarily there for children and their parents to provide reassurance about how well kindergartens and childcare facilities are being run”.

The Early Years Alliance survey, sent to nearly 14,000 daycare centers in March and April, found:

Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance, said recent debate about Ofsted had focused on schools, but they were increasingly seen as “something to fear” even in early years.

“They leave educators stressed and exhausted and questioning their future in the sector,” he said.

The National Kindergarten Association, which also represents providers, fears that the personnel crisis will also have an impact in the early years.

Their executive director, Purnima Tanuku, says that while they support inspections, when a kindergarten closes after a poor judgment, it harms the “stability and continuity of care” for children.

About 96% of early childhood service providers are rated as good or excellent, but Ofsted said sometimes “hard decisions have to be made when standards fall or child safety is compromised”.

A former Ofsted inspector called for more constructive inspections, which could be achieved through better inspector training.

Vanessa Dooley now runs the consultancy Jigsaw Early Years Consultancy, which advises kindergartens and preschools.

“Inspections should give attitudes a chance to shine and say, ‘come and see what we’re doing,’ rather than shying away and creating this fear, which is huge, absolutely huge,” she explained.

Prof Eva Lloyd, of the University of East London, says inspections are important and should be frequent, but Ofsted is having to reconsider its inspections due to changes in early years attitudes.

“Ofsted treats each setting as if it were a freestanding one, although it may be part of a chain that operates 300 preschools where many decisions about what’s going on are made far from the setting.”

Ofsted has called for stronger regulatory powers so it can examine how organizations running multiple daycares work to ensure the impact on children is positive.