EXCERPTS:
Tens of thousands of young children attend nurseries and pre-schools that are considered not good enough by inspectors, figures show.
Ofsted is introducing tougher inspections for nurseries and pre-schools, with those rated as failing at risk of closure if they do not rapidly improve.
From Monday only a rating of good or outstanding will be considered acceptable, the watchdog said. Those that fail to meet these standards could face having their registration cancelled, effectively closing them down.
The old satisfactory rating will be replaced by "requires improvement", a change that has already been made to school inspections. Nurseries and pre-schools handed this rating will be monitored and reinspected within a year. They will have two years to raise their game and be judged as good or risk being declared inadequate.
Ofsted said nurseries and pre-schools rated as inadequate would be reinspected within six months.
As of the end of June, almost a fifth (18%) of early years centres were considered less than good, with 1% of these rated as inadequate. That means there were up to 143,583 children in nurseries and pre-schools rated as satisfactory, and up to 14,195 in places that were inadequate - 157,778 in total.
In April the Ofsted chief inspector, Sir Michael Wilshaw, said inspectors would be tougher on poor nurseries and pre-schools because "no one thinks they should be allowed to languish in their inadequacy".
"I wouldn't have wanted my child to go to an inadequate nursery and I don't believe that any other parent would either, so we're going to be less tolerant," he said. "When we go back to reinspect an inadequate setting and it hasn't improved, it's likely that we may take steps to cancel the registration."
Ofsted's director of early years, Sue Gregory, said: "Very many nurseries and pre-schools provide a good or better service, but we want to help others to become good through our inspections. Our revised framework will give further reassurance to parents, and give the early years sector the opportunity to demonstrate that they are providing a high quality service in which young children can develop in a safe environment."
Liz Bayram, chief executive of the Professional Association for Childcare and Early Years, said Ofsted regulation and inspections were the best way to improve quality.
"The new 'requires improvement' grading, so long as it is underpinned by robust Ofsted inspection processes, will mean parents better understand what good quality care looks like for their children and will encourage more providers to improve," she said. "This is critical when we know that it is only high quality childcare and early learning that delivers the best start in life for all children but in particular for children living in disadvantage."
Davina Ludlow, director of daynurseries.co.uk, said: "While we believe that every child deserves the very best education, we are concerned about the impact this downgrade could have on nurseries and hard-working staff members. The change being brought in by Ofsted risks adversely impacting staff motivation, resulting in more harm than good. What nurseries need is more support from local authorities and national government if there is to be any improvement across the sector."
-reprinted from the Guardian