A spokeswoman for Ofsted, which was sending out copies of the standards and guidance together to all providers, said distribution started in early July but hit problems in August when Ofsted ran out of copies of the guidance.
She said, 'We are still providing the service, but it is on a request basis. Providers should call 07002 637 833 for a copy of the guidance and 0845 602 2260 for a copy of the standards.' Zarqa Naseer, an information support officer at the National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA), said members had been contacting her about a range of problems, and the NDNA had also run out of supplies of the standards during August.
Ms Naseer said, 'Some have only had the standards, some have had the guidance but not the standards, and some people haven't got either. Some people aren't aware that there is guidance. During August the standards were out of print, so we were advising providers to access them from the website.'
Sue Ranson, managing director of the Coombe Valley nursery group in Cornwall, and chair of the local Kernow Association of Nurseries, said she became concerned when three of the group's nurseries had not been sent either the standards or the guidance. She carried out a straw poll and found about 14 nurseries in the area had not received copies of either document.
Ms Ranson said, 'People are thinking, "I've got to be inspected and I don't know what on". It's causing a lot of tension and unease.' She also pointed out that there was no means for providers to acknowledge that they had received the documents, so Ofsted might be unaware of gaps in distribution.
A spokesperson for the Pre-school Learning Alliance said it had had a few calls from providers who had not had either standards or guidance, but suggested this was because Ofsted had been given out-of-date details of their addresses.
