Nursery World - Guidance for care standards released

Ofsted published the guidance to the new national standards for daycare last week, setting out in detail what will be expected of providers when it takes over responsibility for regulation on September 3. Five separate substantial documents on childminding, sessional care, full daycare, out-of-school care and creches accompany and clarify the standards published by the Department for Education and Employment (now Department for Education and Skills) in May.

Five separate substantial documents on childminding, sessional care, full daycare, out-of-school care and creches accompany and clarify the standards published by the Department for Education and Employment (now Department for Education and Skills) in May.

The guidance on full daycare is likely to disappoint early years organisations on the issue of staff qualification requirements. Following widespread condemnation of the draft proposal, and Nursery World's 'Stop the Drop' campaign, the DfES announced that all supervisory staff should have a level 3 qualification with at least half of all other staff qualified to level 2.

This move was broadly welcomed, with the reservation that the way the guidance defined 'supervisory' would have a significant impact on what the concession meant in practice. The National Day Nurseries Association proposed that it should include keyworkers. However, the guidance simply defines a supervisor as 'someone who has responsibility for other staff'.

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