As the countdown to the general election begins, Government initiatives are coming fast and thick. This week, the prime minister himself launched a new star rating system for childcare providers, with his wife Cherie Blair as patron. Fine details such as who will administer the scheme and what it will involve are yet to be worked out. Apparently, there will be consultation - a word to strike fear into the hearts of most early years representatives! Monday's 'Today' programme on Radio 4 proclaimed that nurseries are currently inspected, but only on the most basic of standards. This may come as rather a surprise to those private nurseries who are inspected once a year by social services and once every one or two years by Ofsted on nursery education provision and may also be working towards a quality assurance scheme.
As the countdown to the general election begins, Government initiatives are coming fast and thick. This week, the prime minister himself launched a new star rating system for childcare providers, with his wife Cherie Blair as patron.
Fine details such as who will administer the scheme and what it will involve are yet to be worked out. Apparently, there will be consultation - a word to strike fear into the hearts of most early years representatives! Monday's 'Today' programme on Radio 4 proclaimed that nurseries are currently inspected, but only on the most basic of standards. This may come as rather a surprise to those private nurseries who are inspected once a year by social services and once every one or two years by Ofsted on nursery education provision and may also be working towards a quality assurance scheme.
On the information available it's hard to see how parents will be helped to make a choice between, say, a two-star childminder and a two-star nursery - or even a two-star reception class, for the scheme is intended to cover all sectors. The adminstration will need to be very robust if yet another measurement tool is to be genuinely useful, and not just a gimmick.
