The Soho Family Centre, based in the basement and ground floor area of a block of Housing Association flats just off Piccadilly Circus, was inspected by Ofsted last November and later was told that what it has been doing for the past 16 years was illegal and that if it wanted to continue providing daycare in the area it would have to register as a day nursery.
The centre is unhappy at the Ofsted ruling and is appealing it. The centre's director, Andy Elvin, said, 'We went to the Department for Education and Skills to ask for changes in the law to allow this scheme to continue. It suggested we set up a childminding network, which is essentially what we are doing here. But Ofsted's argument is that we are not a domestic premises and so must be a day nursery.'
Seven childminders currently work with up to 28 children aged nought to eight at the centre. Mr Elvin said the Government's Sure Start Unit 'was interested in replicating this in other Sure Start areas'. He added, 'We are currently in the process of being awarded early excellence status by one section of the DfES because of our childminding model, while another section of the DfES will not commit to saving it through a change in the law.'
The childminding scheme began after research done by the centre in 1986 found that not only were there no childminders in area due to a lack of suitable housing locally, but it was also the form of childcare that families in the area wanted, both for daycare and employment. The scheme, where childminders were registered at the centre and worked there in a group, began in 1986 with dispensation from the Department of Health.
Mr Elvin said, 'Now that Ofsted has taken over the registration and inspection of childminders, it has decided that what we are doing is unlawful and is seeking to force us to change into being a day nursery.'
An Ofsted spokeswoman said, 'We have agreed an action plan with the centre to help it meet the national standards and want to register it as a day nursery. As for the meaning of the word "domestic", Ofsted is enforcing national standards not regional or local ones in order to ensure there is consistency throughout England.'
