On close inspection

Providers across the early years sector should have in their postbag by now a set of the national care standards that relate to their type of provision, and the accompanying guidance.

The National Standards for Under- Eights Day Care and Childminding are the set of standards that providers should aim to achieve and on which Ofsted will carry out its inspections from September. The guidance aims to help providers meet those standards, and includes a set of regulations that providers must meet and examples of good practice.

So, do providers face months of unravelling overly-complicated guidance, or have they been presented with a set of accessible guidelines? Will the guidance mean that inspections can run smoothly, or will only time reveal whether inspectors' and providers' interpretations of the guidance concur? Nursery World asked the main childcare associations to comment on what the national standards and guidance means for their members and what may lie ahead under the new inspection regime.

National Day Nurseries Association Rosemary Murphy OBE, NDNA chief executive NDNA welcomes the introduction of national standards for those daycare providers already registered under the Children Act and hopes this will mean an end to the many anomalies created by local interpretation. Ofsted has an enormous task ahead of it and NDNA is already manning helplines to ensure a smooth transition.

Whenever great changes take place, compromise is inevitable. All sectors have had to compromise to make this new system workable. The 'smacking and smoking' ruling for childminders has rightly grabbed headlines, but there are some fundamental omissions for full daycare providers that may in the long term create much bigger problems for the regulators.

It would be easy for an outsider to believe that no standards, or only poor and poorly regulated standards, existed before these much heralded national ones. Providers will, of course, know differently and be able to tell of local standards based on the Children Act guidance with much higher expectations than those we are about to conform to.

We see reference only in the guidance to the supernumary manager, and we are all aware that only the regulations are legally binding. How this guidance is interpreted by providers and regulators will be crucial to the success of the new system. There are real concerns that it will be subject to the same kind of local interpretations as before.

The loss of a supernumerary manager as a mandatory requirement and the inclusion of level 2 qualifications as acceptable for half of the nursery workforce are retrograde steps, undermining the progress made to recognise childcare work as a profession and devaluing the NNEB, the traditional level 3 qualification for childcare staff now known as the Diploma in Childcare and Education. The idea that a shortage of qualified staff will hinder expansion is difficult to accept when it is not suggested that the standards for teachers or nurses are lowered to expand the workforce.

Government plans for a rapid expansion have sacrificed quality in the chase for quantity. It is not the prospect of finding qualified staff that slows down expansion, it is the mighty power of local planning authorities with their ever-increasing demands and local interpretations, business rates, expensive building and conversion work and VAT that are preventing new and existing provision from developing.

State and independent schools continue to expand their provision for pre-school children, yet both are exempt from these standards, making a mockery of the concept of national standards. It will be only when we can guarantee that all our very young children can be protected by the same set of standards that we can then fully welcome anything called 'national standards'.

National Childminding Association Gill Haynes OBE, NCMA chief executive So the labour is over and the 'baby' that is the national standards and guidance has been delivered! At this early stage, it's difficult to judge what childminders' considered reactions will be. From NCMA's point of view, it has been useful that the DfES and Ofsted sent both documents out at the same time, but it is strange that, having funded national organisations to run helplines for providers, Ofsted didn't include the telephone numbers in the covering letter.

Some childminders have managed to contact our helpline, though. Some of the early feedback has criticised the lack of reassurance to providers in this covering letter. As a result, some childminders believe that they will have to comply with every aspect of the new standards from day one, and that they will be inspected by Ofsted faster than you can change a nappy.

From the way things are panning out, this scenario is unlikely. We don't yet know when the first inspections will start, and it's clear that there will need to be priority inspections for childminders who have moved but want to continue looking after the same children and for new childminders caught up in the transitional arrangements.

What is clear is that early years partnerships and national and local provider associations have an important job to do in reassuring childminders that the new system should be better than the old one. Some partnerships have already put their plans in place. Bristol, for example, will be running open meetings for all providers in September and October. And NCMA will be producing two special editions of our membership magazine Who Minds? to tackle childminders' concerns head-on.

As for the standards and guidance themselves, our views on the standards are well known. Some important advances have been made for childminders, including mandatory induction and first-aid training, a more realistic approach to ratios, and compulsory public liability insurance. But, of course, there are the well-publicised exceptions of smoking and smacking.

The guidance has turned out to be an accessible document which childminders should find helpful in preparing for inspections over a period of time. It is organised in a helpful way, starting with the standard itself, and moving through a systematic format which describes the focus of the standard and points that childminders may want to consider, and then finishing up with the most important point of all - what the inspector looks for when carrying out an inspection.

By including NCMA contracts, highlighting the role of accredited network childminders, and emphasising our anti-smoking and anti-smacking policies, the guidance promotes NCMA's work supporting best practice in registered childminding. It also underlines the key aspects of regulation that childminders need to be aware of - what the childminder must do. An example is to keep records of everyone who regularly has contact with the children and of all medicines administered to the children.

On the whole, this guidance should be reassuring to existing childminders and helpful to new ones, because it emphasises the new adult relationship with providers that Ofsted is promoting as part of the new regime. The guidance is much less prescriptive and gives the childminder the opportunity to show that they can meet the new standards, without recourse to a tape measure.

For some childminders, one of the most frustrating elements of the annual inspection visit, when it was under local authority control, was the feeling that inspectors were looking for a different thing every year to 'fail' the childminder on. Whether this was the height of the fence or the padlocks on the drinks cupboard, the experience of 15 years of looking after children successfully simply didn't seem to count. Now the emphasis should be on partnership and a new approach which recognises the expertise of experienced childminders. It will be up to the childminder to share how they provide good-quality care and early education with their new childcare inspector - and up to the inspector to validate it.

But there is still a real challenge ahead. Although the new inspectors will have had the benefit of training in the new system and a chance to talk through some of the new issues that they will be facing in the coming months, most of the providers, including childminders, won't. Hopefully, the new Ofsted regional teams will tackle this issue in consultation with national and local provider organisations and the partnerships in their area.

In the meantime, we all have a role to play in helping to make the new system work, so that existing providers feel confident and supported in continuing to do the excellent job they do - and that new childminders don't feel over-burdened with information before they even start.

Pre-school Learning Alliance Rachel Thomson, assistant to chief executive and administrative director In the past, pre-schools inspected by both Ofsted and their local social services departments have faced up to four inspections in 18 months and been subject to different interpretations of the Children Act, particularly in respect to qualifications and training. The national standards are, therefore, welcome. But of course, we will only know with time how effective and practical the new regime will be.

Community-based pre-schools will welcome the fact that they are not going to be tied up in a great deal of additional red tape. They will also welcome the move towards a profession of qualified practitioners. But within the underfunded voluntary sector, we'll be looking for help with the cost of obtaining new qualifications. A coherent strategy to ensure access to appropriate training is needed, and it is not yet clear how the accreditation of prior learning and experience will fit in to this.

We are disappointed that the framework excludes reception classes and independent schools, and we also believe that the concept of a 'firewall' between sessional and full daycare is not helpful to the aims of the National Childcare Strategy. Many sessional pre-schools are expanding beyond four hours but in circumstances where it may not be appropriate for them to conform to the standards for full daycare - for example, where the provision is for an extra hour or two each day.

We remain concerned about the logic behind the requirement that children in sessional care are allowed to attend only five sessions a week. Because of this, children could attend for two sessions on Mondays and Tuesdays and one session on Wednesday mornings and then receive no further care until the following Monday. Surely it's for parents to assess their needs for childcare and their children's needs for education? As pre-schools will know from experience, many parents seek to enrol their children for more than five sessions, particularly as they approach school.

To help pre-schools prepare for inspection and to help groups seeking to alter their registration, perhaps to offer a lunch club, the Pre-school Learning Alliance is offering two new services from September 2001: a new publication, The Registration and Inspection of Pre-school Settings by Ofsted (available from the charity's mailing house on 0870 603 0062 or www.pre-school.org.uk)and a one-day course/briefing session (details of which are available from the charity's regional centres; phone 020 7833 0991 for further information).

Kids' Clubs Network Anne Longfield, KCN chief executive KCN believes the Out of School Care: Guidance to the National Standards has the potential to bring consistency and cohesion to the fast-growing area of school-age childcare.

The number of out-of-school clubs has doubled since 1997 to reach almost 7,000 clubs today and is set to increase further still. During this period of rapid growth it is important to have a national benchmark against which to measure standards and, broadly speaking, this is what is provided by the new guidance.

The future success of out-of-school childcare depends on quality. Parents and children have a right to expect that wherever they live, the local out-of-school club will provide the same high quality of care.

The new guidance means that a national standard will be applied by uniformly trained and nationally appointed inspectors. However, as many of the judgements or risk assessments made by the inspectors will be subjective, KCN is concerned that the inspectors should have a broad experience of childcare. For many, this will mean gaining more information and understanding of school-age childcare.

The risk assessment nature of the new guidance means many newer clubs will find it a challenge to meet the standards, although longstanding clubs should find it easier to adopt. However, as EYDCPs have maintained their advisory pre-inspection role, they will be able to support clubs to improve their practice before assessment.

The new daycare regulations are not without challenges for out-of-school childcare. Standard 1: Suitable Person requires the person in charge to be qualified to NVQ Level 3, which will be difficult for clubs to meet quickly. Some leeway in the regulations is allowed here in that the person in charge can be working towards qualification and this, combined with the fact that existing qualifications will also be recognised, goes a long way to ensuring that clubs will remain open.

However, the requirement does reinforce the need for targeted training and support of out-of-school staff. It also highlights the need for training and qualifications in playwork. Very few staff have the qualifications needed now and they are a crucial factor in ensuring the high quality of school provision.

Standard 3: Care, Learning and Play is, compared with other sections, still relatively sketchy, and inspectors will benefit from further support and guidance. KCN is working on a new programme to develop an out-of-school play and childcare curriculum which we believe will inform this.

New daycare regulations and arrangements provide an excellent opportunity to make quality a top priority for childcare and so provide the best play and learning experiences for children and peace of mind for parents.

On behalf of the DfES, KCN is compiling a good practice guide and running a series of regional seminars to introduce the new daycare regulations to providers in the autumn. For further information please contact Maggie Walker at KCN on 0207 512 2112 or e-mail maggie.walker@kidsclubs.co.uk.

Creches Janthea Brigden, partner of Nipperbout Active Childcare, a mobile creche company, which participated in consultations with the DfEE on national standards In my opinion the new standards are much clearer and easier to read than the Children Act. There are three changes that are particularly welcome.

The first relates to adult:child ratios. In creches, there is often at least one member of staff tied up on reception, and while some creche providers choose to include this person in adult:child ratios, others do not. The standards do not go as far as to state that these members of staff must be supernumerary. However, they do recommend that creches have sufficient staff to cover such tasks as registration and collecting money without adversely affecting care. Such a recommendation will help to convince some of our more 'economically-minded' clients that our high staffing ratios are necessary.

Also welcome are point 4.5, the need for a telephone, as sometimes exhibition organisers are reluctant to pay for a telephone within a creche, and point 6.6, easy access to security staff if required.