The comments were made by the Select Committee in its second report, which was published just before Christmas. It said, 'The head of the new Ofsted arm should have substantial experience of the care and education of young children. There should be a strong element of early years experience of education and care within the team.'
In a letter to the Select Committee dated 6 November, Chris Woodhead, the former chief inspector of schools, said the key requirements of the new post 'related to management experience and expertise'. But, he added, 'We have not excluded the possibility that an appropriate candidate could have both the management expertise and experience of the early years. However, clear priority has been accorded to the former.'
Mr Woodhead stressed that should the person appointed as director not have experience in the early years, Ofsted would be looking for it within the directorate's senior team. 'It is the overall expertise of the senior team which is important,' he said.
Commenting on this letter the Select Committee report described the new post of director of early years as 'challenging' and said, 'We expect to be following up our work on early years with scrutiny of the performance of the Ofsted early years director as part of the accountability of Ofsted to Parliament.'
In this instance the National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) found itself agreeing with the former chief inspector of schools. NDNA chief executive Rosemary Murphy said, 'The job of director of early years will be a vast job. While I agree it would be good to get someone with early years experience as director, it is more important for the new director to have the appropriate management expertise and the support of a senior management team with early years experience to draw on.'
However, the Professional Association of Teachers (PAT) was concerned by the emphasis on management over early years experience. PAT General Secretary Kay Driver said, 'We are concerned that the new early years director is being recruited on managerial, rather than early years, experience.
'It was wrong for Ofsted to give "priority" to "management expertise". We hope one of the new chief inspector's priorities will be the recruitment of more inspectors with childcare experience to staff the "Oftot" division.'
