The schools inspectorate Ofsted has moved to reassure early years workers about the sweeping changes ahead for daycare regulation. It has been pointing out that the person who carries out their inspection will probably be the same as before, just working for a different organisation, as former social services registration and inspection officers transfer to Ofsted's new Early Years Directorate on 3 September.
So far, so good. Yet there is another aspect to the reforms that is causing concern. These former local authority workers, who come from a care background, are also likely to be inspecting nursery education. The expertise of registered nursery inspectors, who work freelance and will not be transferring wholesale to the Directorate, will be lost.
While many settings have felt some trepidation about the nursery education inspection process, they have risen to the challenge and standards have improved. Under the new regime, they will have an 'augmented' inspection which covers both care and education once every four years, carried out by an Ofsted childcare inspector - probably a former local authority registration and inspection officer.
As one registered nursery inspector (RgNI) with several hundred inspections under her belt puts it, 'The fear is that this will be a watered-down version of the Ofsted nursery inspection. Settings have gone through rigorous inspections - people have lived with it and survived it and are still doing well. This has greatly improved the credibility of the sector.' Another concern is that the 'augmented' inspection could be carried out by somebody with far less understanding of education than the practitioners he or she is inspecting, particularly if teacher involvement in early years settings increases.
OFSTED REPLIES
Ofsted points out that some local authority staff who will be transferring are also RgNIs. They do not yet know how many; nor do they yet know for sure how many local authority officers are transferring overall or whether there will be a shortfall. An Ofsted spokeswoman explains, 'We are still in the process of finalising appointments, so we don't know where the gaps are. The list of new childcare inspectors is still being confirmed and will be passed by the appropriate minister in the new Government.' When the childcare inspectors have been recruited, Ofsted will provide training 'to bring them up to speed' -including training on inspecting education. 'If we don't have enough people, we will recruit registered nursery inspectors if needed. We may look at that, once we have assimilated all the people who are transferring,' the spokeswoman says.
So what about the loss of expertise? Of the 600 RgNIs currently active in England and Wales, around 100 have done more than 100 inspections; around 50 have done more than 150. Ofsted has put some RgNIs on a list of 'additional inspectors' who may be contacted if there is any work they can help with, but there are no guarantees.
Meanwhile, according to the administrator of the nursery arm of one of the private companies which have contracts to carry out education inspections, the RgNIs have been left 'high and dry' and many have fallen back on supply teaching. Another administrator observes, 'The pool of inspectors is going to disappear. A lot of them have got other strings to their bows and are taking up other parts of their career. It's a wicked waste. I think Ofsted will get a few months down the line and throw its hands up in despair.' This is a frustrating time for many RgNIs. One experienced inspector says, 'I feel sad now when I do the feedback and they say to me, "You really know what it's all about", and I feel like saying to them, "Yes, but I won't be doing it".'
Ofsted is not commenting on the prospect of so much expertise - developed through both experience and extensive Government-funded training - going down the drain. 'That is a matter for ministers and a question you would have to put after the election,' the spokeswoman says.
One option ministers could consider is put forward by Gianna Ulyatt, an RgNI who also carries out primary school inspections, in a letter to Nursery World published this week (see page 34). She proposes that Ofsted should re-train RgNIs to inspect primary provision. Ofsted has not quite closed the door on this possibility. An Ofsted document sent in December to the private companies who are contracted out by Ofsted to administer nursery education inspections said that Ofsted currently had no plans for RgNIs to 'cross-train' as primary inspectors, but added that if sufficient numbers of RgNIs had the appropriate qualifications and experience it would consider organising 'cross-training' to meet any shortages of inspectors in future.
Meanwhile, local authority staff who carried out inspections under the Children Act are also facing radical changes. They are used to team working, but many will now be working from home, and dealing with new technology to boot - some who have been used to doing inspections on paper will now be coping with laptop computers with no colleagues to hand (although Ofsted will be providing technical support). They will be trained to inspect under new national care standards, and now it appears that at least some will also be trained to carry out inspections in education as well. There is no handover period built into the system. From September, when the Early Years Directorate takes on regulation of care, it will also be responsible for the inspection of education in nursery settings.
OUTSTANDING DISPUTES
There are still some outstanding disputes about appointments. A number of local authority inspectors who are currently heads of units or senior inspectors have been offered jobs at the childcare inspector level, and around 100 who are members of the public service union Unison have outstanding appeals. While their salaries are protected during the transfer, Unison is arguing that they have been offered jobs that are not commensurate with the nature and status of their current positions. Unison's legal officer has written to Ofsted arguing that this flouts the laws governing transfers of staff from one organisation to another.
Unison has also raised the issue of secondary employment. Currently many local authority registration and inspection officers have some kind of second job, often as trainers. When they transfer they will no longer be allowed to do any kind of work that might involve a conflict of interest. This may well have a serious effect on the numbers of childcare trainers. Ofsted takes the view that inspectors cannot also train, since questions could be asked about whether a childcare inspector's judgement was affected if he or she, or a colleague, had contributed to a provider's training.
However, Unison is arguing that this, too, is against the law and individuals' contractual rights, including the right to secondary employment, should be the same under Ofsted as under their local authority employers. Unison has warned that Ofsted could be sued for damages or face claims for constructive dismissal on both counts. Ofsted says it has taken legal advice and is acting according to appropriate guidelines.
CARE AND EDUCATION
Some of these concerns and tensions spring from the fact that local authority staff are transferring to the civil service, with all the new restrictions that entails. Others spring from Ofsted's approach to integrating care and education inspection.
In Scotland, the position is somewhat different. The draft national standards that will be used by the Commission for the Regulation of Care were due to be published this week; they will come into effect from April 2002. Education inspections will continue to be carried out separately by HM Inspectorate of Education. However, some agencies, such as the charity Children in Scotland, have been calling for the regulation of care and education to be drawn together under the same body, and believe that the English approach is the right one.
Perhaps it's all a case of 'it's not what you do, it's the way that you do it' -and at the moment, it's still not quite clear how Ofsted proposes to phase in the integration of care and education inspections. Julie Fisher, the early years representative on the National Association of Educational Inspectors, Advisors and Consultants, says, 'Ofsted is well aware that there are different facets to the whole process that will have to be done by different people and some people have the expertise on both sides. As a long-term aim I think they are right to hope we'll end up with people inspecting both care and education... I'm not entirely clear about what their intentions are for using the expertise that's there and I share people's concerns that in order to be able to inspect in early education, you need relevant experience and expertise and we need to make sure people have that before they are let loose on settings.' NW
