Inspectors to focus on health and safety

The five standards cover health and safety and other requirements including appropriate adult:child ratios, criminal records checks for staff, and properly made and kept policies on complaints, emergencies and confidentiality.

The five priority standards chosen from the list of 14 are: a safe environment; health and well-being; quality of experience, whereby each child can choose from a balanced range of activities; confidence in staff, ensuring each child receives care from staff who have gone through a careful selection procedure; and well-managed service.

Care Commission chief executive Jacquie Roberts was due to take the proposal to prioritise the five standards to the Care Commission board this week. She told Nursery World Scotland, 'What we want to develop over the next six months is guidance based on the experience of staff using the tools that are already available. I think that the guidance will be a digestion of what we have done already, with a little more written explanation of how to be flexible in applying the national care standards.