Nursery World - High cost of inspecting childminding places revealed

Ofsted spends six times as much on regulating and inspecting a childcare place with a childminder as it does on one at an early years setting, an analysis by Nursery World reveals.

Last week, we reported that Ofsted chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw was considering changes to the way childminders are inspected and regulated, alongside remarks that angered many childminders.

In comments made to the Education Select Committee, Mr Wilshaw suggested that childminders could be taken out of the Ofsted regulation and inspection process and considered separately from other early years settings, because the cost of registering them was high.

The cost of Ofsted inspection was revealed in response to a parliamentary question posed by Conservative MP Elizabeth Truss.

This showed that in 2010-11, £12.2m was spent on inspecting early years settings and £19.6m was spent on childminding inspections.

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