Red tape problems hamper nurseries

Alison Mercer
Wednesday, August 21, 2002

A nursery owner in Cumbria has warned that another year of chaos in the criminal records check and childcare inspection systems will put providers under such stress that some will be unable to cope. Fran Scales, who has run the Goschen Road nursery in Carlisle with her husband David since 1983, said, 'The last year has been horrendous. If you expand and take on new members of staff, how are you supposed to manage? The system is unnecessarily unwieldy - there must be an easier way. Ofsted have to sort it out, or people are going to end up having nervous breakdowns. You can't run a business under these conditions.'