As well as state and private nurseries, the pilot is to include pre-schools, special schools with a residential element, residential schools for pupils with emotional and behavioural problems and secure units. There will also be a cross section of private, state and voluntary providers. An advisory group of service provider representatives is currently being consulted on what form the inspections will take and how reports will be drawn up, while Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care staff and Her Majesty's Inspectors of Education are working together on joint inspection materials and joint training.
Ronnie Hill, the Care Commission's regional manager for south-east Scotland, who is working with HM Education Inspectors on the development of the joint inspections, said, 'We are looking at bringing together the best practice of Care Commission and education inspectors and of linking the outcomes required in the care standards with the concerns about the delivery of the educational curriculum for three-year-olds and over.'
Every inspection - which will take place once a year for day providers and twice a year for residential schools - is to have an integrated element, with care and education being taken into consideration on each visit.
Still under discussion is the frequency of inspections led by an education focus. Mr Hill promised that the number of full-scale HM Education inspections, which can take several days, would not be increased. He said, 'That would be overkill. There would be real concerns about pulling up innovative work at the roots before it had a chance to bed in.
'The aim is to introduce an element of rationalisation. It is burdensome for service providers and confusing for parents if there is a variety of bodies going in to carry out inspections,' Mr Hill added.
Private day nurseries are accustomed to annual care inspections plus education inspections, which have been carried out on a cyclical basis every five years. Liz Gallacher, chair of the Lothian branch of the Scottish Independent Nurseries Association, said this new pattern could mean two inspections in one year. She said, 'The aim of joint inspections should be a rationalisation of inspections and an easing of the burden on providers. There have always been complaints that there are too many inspections. Curriculum and care should be looked at together.'
State nurseries, hitherto unaffected by care inspections under the local authority registration and inspection regime, will now have to get used to more frequent visits from inspectors.
