Nursery World - Ofsted calls for stronger 'oversight' of large providers

Ofsted is calling for stronger regulatory powers to ensure early years providers with multiple settings are having a positive impact on children.

Ofsted says that current legislation is 'outdated' as it can only inspect individual settings and not report on a nursery group as a whole, PHOTO Adobe Stock

The inspectorate's national director for regulation and care Yvette Stanley says that current legislation is ‘outdated’ and doesn’t ‘reflect the sector as it operates today’, meaning an ‘important part of the picture is being missed’.

It follows the publication of a new report, published by Ofsted, that finds current legislation does not reflect the level of influence that early years multiple providers – those that own two or more settings, have on individual nurseries.

The report says that while these providers ‘exert a great deal of influence over their settings’, Ofsted is only able to inspect individual nurseries and pre-schools.

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