The owner of a nursery which has transformed from “inadequate” to “good” in a matter of months has called for an overhaul of Ofsted inspections after thanking parents for “keeping the faith”.
Early Days Nursery on Linacre Road in Bootle had been found inadequate after an Ofsted inspection last year, with a report published in November stating the nursery “compromised” children’s wellbeing.
The report identified a number of breaches around safeguarding, recruitment, disclosure and barring procedures, approach to hazards and risk assessments, staff supervision, teaching practices and curriculum.
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At the time, owner Clare Russell hit out at the report as “misleading” and criticised the Ofsted inspection regime as being “flawed.” Following a re-inspection in March, the nursery had its previous ‘good’ rating reinstated after inspectors found a “positive atmosphere” with “happy” children and “responsive” staff.
After the publication of the report last week, Ms Russell told the ECHO she felt “vindicated” after an “exceptionally difficult time” for staff members following the rating. Owner of Early Days nursery, Ms Russell said she was “delighted” with the new rating and spoke of “dozens of emails” from parents who she said “kept the faith.”
Ofsted recently announced a package of measures to improve the way inspections are carried out which mainly relate to school inspections. Ms Russell said the new regime should have also been extended to child care providers, who she said were being placed under “pressure” from a “draconian” approach to inspection.
Ms Russell said: “I’ve been running nurseries for years and I welcome the latest Ofsted report. After the last one, I felt like the whole system was wrong. It was damaging parents’ trust in us, it’s an area with a lot of children from disadvantaged backgrounds. I feel vindicated after what’s been a hard six months.
“It placed enormous stress on the staff and me, these situations are what makes small independent nurseries think what are we doing this for.”
She said she believes many other nurseries “feel the same” and called on a return to local-based inspections that take into account area differences.
Ms Russell said: “We’re in a designated area of deprivation, it’s interesting that many of the nurseries getting downgraded to inadequate are in areas of deprivation. Inspections should be local, taking into account the demographics of an area.”
She added: “It feels like central government needs to support this sector more than it does, it needs to create a local inspection service that is cooperative, helpful and supportive rather than draconian and accusatory.”
Referring to the government’s recent announcement to extend free childcare hours for early years children form April 2024, she said: “The measures recently introduced, they don’t go far enough, and they’re too delayed.”
She added: “We provide a vital service for families, we’re not a middle class nursery where parents are really affluent who can afford high fees. We have a lot of parents who just do the free hours, I’m lowering my prices for those people in order for them to be able to get their children in more.
“That’s me bearing the cost of something the state should bear and essentially that’s what we’re doing, of course we’re a company but what we’re doing is our level best to keep a lot of children in a safe environment during the day.
“The government really needs to up its support and up its financial support, particularly in areas of deprivation where it’s the private sector that’s doing the majority of the childcare.”
A spokesperson for Ofsted said: “Early Days nursery was inspected on 17 November 2022 where it received an inadequate judgement. Ofsted reinspected the nursery on 11 May 2023 and awarded the nursery a good judgement. The inspector was satisfied with the progress made by the nursery.
“We are confident that both inspections were conducted sensitively and professionally, and that the reports accurately reflected the inspection findings.”
Ofsted has also launched today a consultation on its complaints process and the spokesperson added that early years providers are included in that consultation and encouraged to make their views known.
Key proposals include extending on-site dialogue during inspections, providing an avenue for providers to contact a senior inspector shortly after the inspection if any concerns arise about the process or outcome.
Other measures being consulted on include new procedures for complaints and challenging decisions, including allowing complainants to escalate concerns to the Independent Complaints Adjudication Service for Ofsted (ICASO) at an earlier point and periodic reviews into the closed complaints.
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