Focus on Enforcement review: make your views heard about regulation

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills wants to hear from all types of providers, as well as parents, who have ideas and examples about how the current enforcement of regulation could be improved.

They are also asked to suggest how regulators can better help providers comply with the law, and to highlight where regulation is working well, so that good practice can be replicated across the sector.

The aim is to drive up standards while removing complicated bureaucratic requirements which result in practitioners spending less time with children, and to provide better protection for children and greater clarity for providers.

The review will complement the work of the Government’s commission on childcare which is looking at how to give childcare providers more flexibility over how they operate and reduce the costs of childcare for working families.

KEY ISSUES

The review encompasses regulatory activity by national regulators and local authorities relating to childcarers including nurseries, childminders and pre-schools, but excluding nannies, au pairs and children looked after in their family home.  Its focus will include:

• The extent to which compliance and enforcement activity in childcare and pre-school education is proportionate to risks, and how targeted, consistent, transparent and accountable

• Overlaps, gaps and co-ordination between multiple regulatory regimes from the perspective of the business or self-employed provider or parent

• Perceptions of the law that may drive unnecessary behaviour

• Whether there is unreasonable or unnecessary pressure brought to bear on providers by third parties.

REGULATORY ACTIVITY

Regulatory activity includes actions taken by national regulators or local authorities, including:

• Provision of advice on compliance with the law

• Inspections of locations or equipment in order to satisfy regulatory authorities of compliance with the law

• Requirements to make formal applications, or provide information

• Requirements to attend courses or obtain particular qualifications

• Enforcement proceedings taken against individuals or organisations in the event of a perceived or actual failure to comply with regulations (specific cases cannot be considered unless all proceedings have finished – but general evidence in relation to enforcement proceedings can be).

The review will seek to identify examples of ‘effective, tailored and easy to understand guidance and advice’ for businesses, and ‘good enforcement delivery that is risk-based, focused on achieving compliance and supporting business growth’.

The consultation can be accessed on the Focus on Enforcement website. Comments can be posted anonymously as well as on the record. The site is open for comment for approximately eight weeks.