Backdown over Ofsted fees increase

The proposed rise in annual fees for the Early Years Register (EYR), covering children below the age of compulsory schooling, and the Ofsted Childcare Register (OCR), covering children aged six and above, was to pay the equivalent of 25 per cent of Ofsted's service costs in 2010. OCR costs will remain at £103 for childminders and £114 for other providers, but EYR fee rises have been reduced. Announcing the changes at the annual conference of the National Day Nurseries Association, children's minister Beverley Hughes said, 'I have listened closely to the views...