DfES Consultation on Exemption from Ofsted Childcare Registration
17 May 2007
Independent Schools Council Response
The Independent Schools Council (ISC) represents the seven leading independent schools associations in the United Kingdom, collectively educating more than 500,000 children in 1,278 schools. ISC exists to promote choice, diversity and excellence in education; the development of talent at all levels of ability; and the widening of opportunity for children from all backgrounds to achieve their potential.
ISC supports the aim of securing safe and appropriate childcare through the Ofsted Childcare and Early Years Registers. There are 888 ISC schools that offer nursery provision and many more who offer out of school hours childcare in the form of activities and clubs. ISC schools understand the importance of this work and have consistently offered high quality care and education. Equally, ISC agrees that a proportionate and targeted approach to regulation and inspection is most appropriate. One which ensures that children are maximally protected, educated and cared for according to their needs.
One area of concern for independent schools as less than proportionate is that of ‘rising threes'. The indication that a school which allows children who are ‘rising-three' to join the three year old nursery class in the term in which they turn three has to register separately as day care and be inspected separately as provision catering for under threes is unnecessary duplication and a disproportionate expectation. Although it is recognised that the Early Years Foundation Stage will be a single framework for care, learning and development for all children from birth to five, there is nevertheless a clear difference in character between the provision made in school nursery education classes for three year-olds and childcare provision made for the majority of two year-olds. This difference is recognised by the fact that nursery education provision in a school linked to the Independent Schools Council is registered by the DfES and inspected by the Independent Schools Inspectorate as part of a whole-school inspection, whereas childcare provision for under-threes is currently inspected by Ofsted. We believe that the admission, where developmentally appropriate, of small numbers of "rising threes" to nursery education classes for three year-olds should not mean that the whole of that provision must be registered as childcare. IAPS / ISC therefore wish to propose that an exemption from the requirement to register be granted in respect of nursery education provision that is made for children aged "rising three" who are accommodated in small numbers in the same school nursery classes as children who have already reached the age of three.
The consultation points out that there are already special rules for schools making them exempt from Early Years Registration. It is obviously felt that the school's inspection team is best suited to inspect school provision and understands the specific regulatory framework within which they operate. It also goes without saying that inspection teams are under a duty to check whether young children are, whatever their needs, receiving appropriate care, education and support. Those in a class who were ‘rising-three' would be no exception to this.
Independent schools have consistently demonstrated their ability to provide high quality nursery provision; Ofsted's Annual Report in 2000 stated that ‘the performance of independent schools and local authority nurseries is particularly commendable'. The following year, 5,562 different nursery settings were inspected by Ofsted. In 2001 it was once again reported that ‘the data indicate that variations in performance are greater in some provider groups than others. Independent schools, local authority day nurseries and private nursery schools are most successful in promoting progress towards the early learning goals'.