Petits Enfants nursery in Teddington, London, one of a nine-strong group bought by Nord Anglia last September, was featured in 'Nurseries Undercover', which tracked reporter Lizz Brown working as a volunteer in three private day nurseries.
The programme attracted seven million viewers on 12 August, the largest audience for a BBC current affairs programme this year.
It showed staff at Petits Enfants breaching basic hygiene regulations. A worker there told the BBC that there had been no soap or cleaning materials in some of the toilets for months.
A Nord Anglia spokeswoman said, 'This is obviously unacceptable and we very much regret it,' adding that the company was reviewing procedures 'to evaluate the course of action'.
Since acquiring Petits En- fants, the spokeswoman said, Nord Anglia has introduced 'new management and management systems and carried out independent audits' and is phasing out agency staff, which would help to ensure its nurseries were 'of a uniformly high standard'.
The programme also revealed that staff at the nursery had had their morning and afternoon breaks cut and were working nine-and-a-half hours a day with only 30 minutes for lunch.
In response, Nord Anglia said that it was 'more than compliant for legal requirements for breaks' and took the well-being of staff 'very seriously'.
Some staff have been sacked from Little Treasures nursery in Stoke-on-Trent after the television programme showed workers pulling children by the arm, shouting and calling them names. The third setting featured was Bank House nursery in Radcliffe, Greater Manchester.
The programme has led to calls from childcare experts for spot inspections of nurseries. Ofsted's current practice is to tell early years settings the month they will be inspected, but not the date.
It also undertakes unannounced inspections, often following information that a provider might not be meeting standards.
Ofsted said it had already taken steps to move to reduced notice for inspection from April 2005. In May its early years director, Maurice Smith, announced the possibility of inspections at 'next to no notice' for childcare providers.
Marion Dowling, president of the British Association for Early Childhood Education and a former Ofsted inspector, said that she supports spot inspections, 'because where nurseries have prior warning, they can demonstrate a very different approach'.
She said she thought that Ofsted needed to be much more vigilant, and inspections should last longer and inspectors be trained more thoroughly. 'You need to be a very skilled person to get under the "skin" of the nursery,' she said.
But she added, 'What I would not want parents to do is panic and think all nurseries are like this and nursery provision is bad for children.'
An Ofsted inspector who wished to remain anonymous told Nursery World that she had found the television programme 'very alarming' and she supported spot inspections. She said, 'I think that we should walk in any time. The whole thing needs shaking up.'
Henry James, who owns Chatterbox Nursery in Mossley, Manchester, agreed and said he was all for unannounced inspections.
He said he had had no negative reactions from parents following the programme and routinely puts prospective clients in touch with parents whose children attend the nursery.
'If a parent gives you a glowing reference, that's the best advert you can have,' he said.
l See 'In My View', page 34 and next week's Letters page for more reactions
