From this month schools in the private sector in England attended by children aged two and under have to be registered with Ofsted. This removes us from the strange limbo we have been living in. Having built a state-of-the-art baby and toddler centre two years ago alongside our existing after-school and holiday club, we found that no matter how hard we tried, no-one, neither social services nor Ofsted, were prepared to inspect and register us.
We could have been swinging the children from the chandeliers (if we had any) and no-one would have taken a blind bit of notice. Unfortunately some 'schools' - and remember, independent school status comes with having just five or more children over the age of five - have used this loophole to opt out of the requirements made in the private nursery or daycare sector. The majority of schools take children from three upwards and they are excluded from the review.
Concerns regarding this half-measured approach are backed up by the DfES report, The regulatory impact assessment for proposals to extend Children Act childcare regulation to schools. This found childcare in certain Independent schools for children under five to be totally inadequate. It quoted instances where children had little or no space to play, babies slept among children at play, children had no access to toilets or running water and staff:child ratios were inappropriate.
We hope these almost Dickensian conditions are few and far between, but we cannot know this if all childcare, not just that of the under-twos or threes, is not regulated by Ofsted. As it is, the Independent Schools Inspectorate only visits every five years and between visits a child could have entered school, spent their entire early childhood there and never been part of an inspection process.
In order for us to protect and nurture all children, Ofsted must extend its age band to those over three.
By doing so it will eradicate discriminatory practice such as only taking children who are toilet trained and it will also ensure the sector takes young children's needs as seriously as it does its older pupils.
While it is important to ensure the well being of the youngest children in Independent schools - the under-twos now and the under-threes by September 2004,
