Tinies Childcare became locked in a battle with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) following a nursery nurse's suspicions that she was being turned down for jobs because a former employer had given her a bad reference.
Although her former employer, a nursery manager, said that she did not want her opinions passed on to the nursery nurse, the Information Commissioner is insisting that Tinies reveal them.
Nursery World has seen correspondence from the ICO which says that if Tinies does not comply it could face criminal prosecution, non-criminal enforcement or audit.
Ben Black, director of Tinies, said that his company was considering challenging the ICO in court. He said, 'If nursery managers or parents felt under any intimidation, imagined or real, not to disclose full details about a former nursery worker or nanny, then there is a real danger that the wrong people could slip through the net, because the references do not paint a full picture. A reference that merely confirms dates of employment might be fine for some industries, but it's not really sufficient in the childcare market.'
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