Three Kidderminster nurseries 'outstanding'

12:47pm Wednesday 27th August 2008

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THREE Kidderminster nurseries have been declared “outstanding” in a report published today by Ofsted, the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills.

Church House Day Nursery, St Ambrose Pre-School Nursery and Barnabees Nursery were all praised in the report for the quality of their service.

The report also says that more early years and childcare settings are meeting requirements set by the Government than three years ago, with recommendations made in inspections being an important catalyst for improvement.

Leading to Excellence: A review of childcare and early education provision 2005-08 is the third review of inspections of registered childcare and early education.

This year, the report focuses on how well settings - such as nurseries and child-minders - are organised, led and managed to promote positive outcomes for children and ensure they progress well.

The report reveals significant improvements in early years services over the last three years. While less than 80 per cent of registered settings met national standards in 2005, now almost all do and two thirds are good or outstanding.

Her Majesty's Chief Inspector, Christine Gilbert, said: "Good organisation, leadership and management are at the heart of effective provision.

“We hope this report will serve as a useful tool to help those who are making good progress to carry on their excellent work, to motivate those that are satisfactory to do better and to ensure all children benefit from improved outcomes.

"It's particularly encouraging to note that where we found inadequate provision in previous inspections, these settings have improved significantly.

“However, there is still more to do to ensure that outcomes for all children are of a consistently high standard and that every child has access to the same quality care, particularly in areas where provision is generally poorer.”

While the early years sector is doing well overall in promoting positive outcomes for children, concerns remain about variations in the quality of childcare across the sector.

The quality of provision in full day-care settings is better than out-of-school schemes while, among the childminders inspected, the level of good childcare has fallen and the level of inadequate childminding has also risen over the last three years.

There are also variations across the country with services generally of a lower quality in areas where families are experiencing high levels of deprivation.

In the 30 most deprived local authority areas, 53 per cent of childminders provide good or better childcare, compared with 60 per cent in the rest of the country.

In the latest cycle, 2005 to 2008, three per cent of childminders, four per cent of day-care settings, and six per cent of out-of-school settings are inadequate.

At the same time, the vast majority of inadequate childcare provision has improved following inspection and is now judged to be satisfactory or better, although five per cent has not yet done so. Ofsted considers inadequate provision unacceptable and is monitoring this closely.

Ofsted inspections continue to be an important catalyst for improvement. Over the last three years, Ofsted gave 94 per cent of providers inspected at least one recommendation on ways to do better.

The report will also help parents know what quality they should look for in the care of their children.