However, Ofsted said that while the quality of care and learning was good, a third of the 23 centres inspected 'do too little to evaluate the quality of teaching and learning in the Foundation Stage' because of inadequate staff management skills and insufficient support from local education authorities.
The report, Children at the centre: an evaluation of early excellence centres, found that teaching was less strong in early maths, early literacy and aspects of creative development because staff who are not qualified teachers 'tend to lack confidence and subject knowledge'.
Most centres offer children under three 'a rich, stimulating environment, with high-quality resources, and emphasise children's personal, social and emotional development'. In a minority of centres there was a lack of interesting resources and too little observation, recording and assessment.
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