Nurseries and childminders join call for Ofsted changes

Nursery managers Zoe O'Malley (l) and Tori Pearson said staff have had "sleepless nights" since an Ofsted inspection downgraded their school

The Early Years Alliance charity, which represents nurseries, preschools and childminders, wants a review of the grades given by Ofsted inspectors.

The charity took a snapshot survey of early years' staff, which revealed many of them found inspections stressful.

Ofsted says it knows "inspections can be challenging", and wants them to be "as constructive as possible".

Teaching unions have called for inspections to be paused after head teacher Ruth Perry took her own life.

Nurseries, pre-schools and childminders are inspected against a different set of standards from schools, but also receive one overall grade.

They are marked as outstanding, good, requires improvement or the lowest grade of inadequate, which can lead to a school's closure if the council decides to withdraw funding.

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'Worst day of my life'

Nursery owner Zoe O'Malley says she and her staff have had "sleepless nights" since an Ofsted report in December rated her nursery "inadequate".

She said the inspection was the "worst day of my life".

The report from Ofsted said that safeguarding at Busy Bunnies Day Nursery in High Peak, Derbyshire, was not effective, because "not all staff were aware of how to keep children safe from radicalisation, female genital mutilation and child exploitation".

It also said babies were given "too much toothpaste", which it said posed "a risk" to their health.

Zoe believes a six-hour visit did not give a "whole view" of the nursery, and that some of the concerns raised could have been dealt with "there and then".

"Inspections are important," she says, but staff found it hard to answer questions on safeguarding "while minding children" and one has since left the sector because of the impact on her.

Each family has been asked by the council to consent to their child remaining at the nursery until reinspection between now and June.

Ofsted said inspections are "first and foremost for children and their parents, to provide assurance about how well nurseries and childcare settings are run".

'Something to dread'

The Early Years Alliance's survey, which was sent to just under 14,000 early years' settings in March and April, found:

• 1,586 (out of 1,708) staff said inspections were a source of stress "sometimes" or "often"

• 1,227 (out of 1,601) would remove the single-word grading

• 330 (out of 1,572) had worked somewhere which has previously filed a formal complaint about an inspection

Neil Leitch, Early Years Alliance chief executive, said the recent debate about Ofsted had focused on schools, but they were also increasingly seen "as something to dread" in early years' settings.

"They are leaving educators stressed, exhausted and questioning their future in the sector," he said.

The National Day Nurseries Association, which also represents providers, fears that the staffing crisis in early years is also having an impact.

Its chief executive Purnima Tanuku says that, while they support inspections, when a nursery closes after a bad judgement, it is damaging to "stability and continuity of care" of children.

About 96% of early years' providers are judged as good or outstanding, but Ofsted said it does sometimes "have to take tough decisions when standards drop or children's safety is compromised".

Former Ofsted inspector Vanessa Dooley believes training for inspectors needs to be improved

One former Ofsted inspector called for inspections to be more constructive, which could be done through better training for inspectors.

Vanessa Dooley now runs consultancy firm Jigsaw Early Years Consultancy, giving advice to nurseries and preschools.

"Inspections should give settings their opportunity to shine and say, 'come and see what we're doing', rather than shy away, and cause that anxiety which is huge, absolutely huge," she explained.

'A broader overview'

Prof Eva Lloyd, from University of East London, says inspections are important and should be frequent, but Ofsted needs to rethink how it inspects because of changes in early years' settings.

"Ofsted treats each setting as if it's a free-standing one, whereas it may belong to a chain that runs 300 nurseries, where a lot of the decisions about what goes on are determined well away from the setting."

Ofsted has called for stronger regulatory powers to allow it to look at how organisations running several nurseries are operating, to make sure the impact on children is positive.