The new Ofsted guidance on national standards for under-eights daycare and childminding in England must surely be the most bizarre set of documents that organisation has yet produced.
It is hard to believe that civil servants and expert advisors could actually bring themselves to write official guidance that manages to be pompous, mealy-mouthed, barbaric, comical and chilling in turn. The already notorious smacking and smoking advice for childminders will surely destroy any last shreds of respectability that Ofsted regulation of childcare had left. And the Early Years Directorate hasn't officially started yet!
I can see no subtle deterrent to smacking in the suggested 'written agreement' with parents. It is usually the case that written agreements carry pseudo-official status and get implemented, resulting, in this instance, in very young children being assaulted.
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