---

Childcare Bill

moved Amendment No. 79:"Page 24, line 13, at end insert—" ““( ) Persons carrying out inspections of early years provision must have specific experience, qualifications and understanding relating to the needs of young children.”” The noble Baroness said: This amendment came out of something to which I referred in one of our earlier debates. I am concerned that those carrying out inspections of early years settings should have an appropriate level of understanding of the needs and development of young children and of the skills and qualifications required by those who help them develop. On that occasion I referred to a telephone correspondence I had with Ofsted, when I phoned to ask what qualifications were required for someone to be appointed as an early years inspector. The noble Lord, Lord Adonis, will remember that I said I was very concerned about the answer I eventually received, but I did not have my note with me at the time; I have it now. On that occasion, the Minister said he would ask officials to request that Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector write to me, which he has done. I received a letter from Maurice Smith dated 26 April, which I believe has been copied to other noble Lords. In it he explains that:"““Ofsted’s childcare inspectors were transferred from local authority registration and inspection services in September 2001””," and that at that stage,"““they had a variety of backgrounds including working in childcare, social work and teaching. Not all inspectors had degrees, but all had experience in inspecting childcare””." He also says that:"““Ofsted supports the government’s plans to have a graduate in every setting by 2015, and is committed to ensure that its own workforce is trained and qualified to an equally high standard””." He explains that Ofsted has:"““already started its programme to improve the qualifications of inspectors and their managers by offering them the opportunity to obtain a relevant degree””." I intend to do Mr Smith the courtesy of a detailed reply to his letter. I am concerned about what Ofsted is asking of new recruits; that is what I wanted to know. I welcome the ongoing professional development that is taking place among existing inspectors, but I am concerned about what is to happen in the future. The Chief Inspector tells me that:"““There has been little cause to recruit inspectors over the past five years, but Ofsted has demonstrated its commitment to improving its workforce by setting the expectation that newly recruited inspectors will have a relevant degree level qualification””." It depends what you mean by ““relevant””, because this is what I was told was in the requirements in the last recruitment drive in April 2004: a minimum NVQ Level 4, preferably—notice ““preferably””—in childcare, health, social work or education. Note: not early education. Other disciplines, however, would be considered. That means we have inspectors being taken on now, knowing what we do about what they will have to inspect in future, who do not have an early years education degree. However, experience was referred to, not just qualifications, so substantial management experience in children’s day care or education would be accepted. So we could have a head teacher, all of whose experience has been with 11 to 18 year-olds, and who knows very little about early years. There is no emphasis or definite requirement for new inspectors to have a degree-level qualification that leads them to understand in depth the development of very young children. I am therefore concerned that, unless these requirements are changed, some of the inspectors being recruited from now on will not really understand what they are seeing; and we will have some more examples of the anecdotes I and other Members of the Committee have told in the past about responses from Ofsted inspectors to what they have seen in good-quality nursery settings that have been entirely inappropriate. That has caused me to ask to be inserted into the Bill an extra little subsection saying that people carrying out inspections of early years provision must have specific experience, qualifications and understanding relating to the needs of young children. I beg to move.