Watchdog explains its investigations

It is the first time Ofsted has published a report on this area of our work, so it will be of interest to early years and childcare providers, professionals working in the sector, and parents.

The vast majority of childcare providers meet Government standards. Between 1 April and 30 June this year, 99 per cent of childcare providers were meeting Government standards and were given a grade of satisfactory or good for inspections.

But in those cases where providers are not satisfactory, Ofsted takes action to raise the standards of care. In the report we describe how Ofsted finds out about any concerns raised about providers, how we investigate these concerns and how we ensure that those not meeting the Government's national standards improve or close down.

Ofsted investigated 6,250 concerns about childminders and daycare providers between April 2003 and March 2004, the majority of which came from parents.

We investigate all concerns that come within Ofsted's remit and try to agree informal action if it is not a serious issue where children's safety could be at risk. We work with childcarers to improve the quality of care by asking them to make changes within a certain timescale.

If childcarers do not make the agreed changes, or in serious cases where children are at risk of harm, we move immediately to enforcement action.

This includes issuing a compliance notice, a legal document which sets out what must be done in order to meet Government standards, changing the conditions of registration, cancelling or suspending registration, and prosecution if a nursery owner or childminder has committed an offence. In 2003 to 2004 Ofsted cancelled 49 registrations and prosecuted four childminders.

Ofsted always takes allegations of unregistered childcare seriously. In 2003 to 2004 we became aware of 900 concerns about unregistered childcare.

In the majority of cases childcare providers apply to register or stop looking after children when approached by Ofsted.

Some concerns we receive have a child protection element, most often allegations of rough handling or smacking. In these cases we work with the police and social services. Ofsted does not carry out child protection investigations, but we work closely with the other agencies and always conduct our own investigation into whether the childcarer meets the national standards and is suitable to care for children. Matters about children's safety are always taken very seriously and we investigate all complaints we receive.

Finally, I would like to end on a positive note, by assuring parents and those working in the childcare sector that the vast majority of childcarers do look after children well and meet Government standards.