Children losing out as study finds 40% of daycare is not good enough

Many parents are missing out on the best daycare for their children because only 3% of providers are judged to be outstanding and 40% rate just satisfactory or worse, according to a three-year study by inspectors at Ofsted.

The most serious complaints made in 90,000 inspections covered by the report included adults looking after too many children or not being properly vetted, and nurseries with no first aid kits.

Despite improvements over the past three years, four out of 10 childminders, nurseries and after-school clubs still rate "satisfactory" or "inadequate", categories that Ofsted said indicate they must improve. That means many children are in average childcare lacking the staff and facilities to best prepare them for their later education, the report says.

Margaret Morrissey, spokeswoman for the National Confederation of Parent Teacher Associations, said: "Every parent wants the most outstanding place for their child, and there should be enough to go round."

She said the scarcity of the very best provision added to the pressure on families trying to combine busy working lives with parenting.

While only three in every hundred daycare settings - including childminders, nurseries or out-of-school clubs - were rated inadequate between 2005 and July this year, the proportion of childminders judged inadequate has tripled to 6%. Childminders, who look after small groups of children in their own homes, provide the bulk of childcare in England.

The quality of nurseries has improved and is significantly better than after-school clubs, the review found. The most experienced carers or longest-established nurseries tended to fare better in inspection reports than newer facilities.

The report says: "The proportion of daycare providers inspected with good or outstanding childcare has risen from 53% in 2005-06 to 64% in 2007-08, though the proportion of childminders judged good or outstanding has fallen from 65% to 59%."

The chief inspector, Christine Gilbert, warned that the government's new curriculum for under-fives was too complicated for many settings, which would not cope with its controversial requirements for children to learn to read and write before they start school. The curriculum, called the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), comes into force in two weeks' time and will see all childcare providers obliged to rate children's progress against 69 separate measures, which include using simple phonics to read and write.

Ministers said that the EYFS would help improve the standard of childcare, and dismissed critics who say it will be misused in substandard settings and will shackle the best settings and those which use alternative methods.

The Ofsted report found wide local variations in the quality of childcare. In the 30 most deprived areas, 47% were not good enough, rating only satisfactory or worse, compared with 40% nationally. Only half of childminders in London are said to be good enough, compared with 64% in other areas of the country.

It documents 24,000 complaints, many made by parents but most anonymously, setting out concerns that the people working with children were not properly trained or had not been vetted to work with children. Others alleged that the legal child-to-adult ratios were not being met. Despite the complaints reflecting broadly those made by inspectors after visits to inadequate settings, 70% were dismissed after an investigation.

Morrissey said: "Parents should keep the Ofsted reports in perspective. It's the experience of one inspector on one day and they fulfil an important function in keeping things safe. But the school gate and nursery car park are the best places to find out what a nursery is like."

Christine Gilbert, Ofsted's chief inspector, said: "Though only a small proportion [of childcare settings] are inadequate, that masks the fact that there are almost twice as many inadequate childminders this year. Providers judged to be inadequate have significant improvements to make if they are to meet the demands of the EYFS and provide the high-quality education and care children deserve."

The Department for Children, Schools and Families said: "It's heartening that childcare in this country is improving, but we want to drive up standards even further. That is why we are introducing the EYFS in September, which will give every child equal right to the best-quality care and learning."

Common problems

Some 94% of daycare providers were given at least one order to improve. The most common of the more serious problems was making sure adults had undergone proper child safety vetting and were fully trained. Other providers were told to employ the number of staff required by law - one adult for every three children under two, one adult per four two-year-olds, and one for every eight children aged three to seven. Other orders included making sure staff knew child protection procedures, took proper registers and had first aid arrangements.