Ofsted: Quality of childcare

Leading to Excellence from Ofsted based on evidence from 90,000 inspections of 84,000 early years and childcare settings during the three years to March 2008. The report shows how well the whole sector is doing to promote positive outcomes for children. It focuses on how early years and childcare settings are organised, led and managed so children make good progress.

Key points:
- Almost all settings (97%) provide at least satisfactory childcare, and approaching two thirds are good or outstanding. Of the small minority of settings (3%) judged inadequate most improve quickly although a few have not yet done so. We have set stringent actions for these settings and continue to monitor them closely.
- The quality of childcare varies across the sector. The proportion of good or outstanding provision ranges from 47% in out-of-school schemes to 65% in full day-care settings.
- Well-established provision is generally of a higher quality than recently registered provision. There is also variation across the country with provision in socio-economically deprived areas generally below that elsewhere. There are, though, deprived areas that buck this general trend.
- The proportion of day-care group providers inspected with good or outstanding childcare has risen from 53% in 2005–06 to 64% in 2007–08, though the proportion of childminders judged good or outstanding has fallen from 65% to 59%.
- The quality of organisation, leadership and management is key to ensuring provision supports positive outcomes for children. The best settings place children at the heart of all that happens, and how the best providers are continually working to improve their already excellent practice.
- Almost all registered early years and childcare settings (97%) are satisfactory or better in the way they are organised to promote positive outcomes for children. Over half the settings (54%) are good or outstanding.

Outcomes of early childhood education

The New Zealand Ministry of Education commissioned this literature review into the impact of early childhood education (ECE) on children and families. The authors explored 117 international and New Zealand texts to addresses three questions:

(a) What developmental, educational, social, and economic outcomes are associated
with participation in ECE for learners and their families?
(b) Are different outcomes associated with different population groups and under different circumstances/ contexts? Considering whether there are adverse impacts more likely and for whom?
(c) How do different outcomes interact/relate with one another?
i. What is the size/significance of the different impacts of ECE? How long do the effects last?

Key findings:

- ECE participation is positively associated with gains in mathematics and literacy, school achievement, intelligence tests, and also school readiness, reduced grade retention, and reduced special education placement.

- the small number of studies that examined associations between ECE participation and learning dispositions found positive impacts.

- There are mixed findings on the impact of ECE participation on antisocial and worried behaviour.

- There is a suggestion that children may catch more infections (ear, nose, and throat) through ECE participation, and that young children attending all-day centres may experience higher cortisol levels (symptom of stress). Where centres are good quality, cortisol levels tend to be lower.

- Studies found cognitive gains for children from low-income/ disadvantaged homes could be greater than for most other children in mathematics and literacy.

- Children for whom English is an additional language, and children from some ethnic minority groups (including Black children), made greater progress on numeracy and pre-reading measures during ECE participation than the white U.K. children or those for whom English is a first language in the English EPPE study.

- Longer duration of ECE experience is linked with cognitive (“academic”) gains for children from all family socioeconomic backgrounds but full-time attendance has no benefits for cognitive outcomes over part-time attendance in studies of children from a range of socioeconomic backgrounds.

- A small number of international studies found an early starting age before age 2 or 3 is associated with higher levels of antisocial or worried behaviour at the time of attendance or shortly after school entry. These associations were generally found in centres rated as low-quality.

As the diagramme shows, early childhood services that contribute to positive child and family outcomes are settings characterised by:
- intentional teaching;
- family engagement with ECE teachers and programmes, where social/cultural capital and interests from home are included, and both family and teachers can best support the child’s learning; and
- a complex curriculum involving both cognitive and non-cognitive dimensions

Childhood wellbeing

The DCSF and other government departments have worked together to produce this report into childhood wellbeing by asking parents and children.

Key points:
- Although initially those taking part in the research thought the components of a happy childhood were obvious, on reflection many decided that it was an important topic which needed discussion.
- Some parents found discussions uncomfortable as they did not want to pass judgement on others and they also felt both huge responsibility and powerlessness.
- There was a lot of consensus within each discussion group and across the sample.
- Parents felt it was difficult to apply the term good childhood to childhood today as they associated the term closely with their own upbringing which was very different.
- Wellbeing was interpreted as being physically well, or having the essentials in life, rather than having a sense of nurturing. Happy childhood was another difficult term as happiness was seen as temporary; content childhood was seen as a better term.
- Both parents, children and young people recognised the 5 ECM outcomes as crucial to a content childhood. Safety was felt to be very important, economic wellbeing as not so important, and being healthy was rarely mentioned.
- The influence of family was felt to be a fundamental factor in a content childhood.
- There was also agreement on what undermined conditions for a good childhood, including, an unsafe environment, financial pressure and lack of quality family time.

New Every Child Matters Framework

The DCSF have released a new Every Child Matters (ECM) outcomes framework. The framework links all of the outcomes to the Public Service Agreements (set by HM Treasury) and the National Indicator Set. The major themes from these were to increase attainment for all and to close the gap between children from disadvantaged background and their more affluent peers.

Key points:

- The majority of indicators relate to the outcome "enjoy and achieve", which includes a strong focus on school attainment

- Few indicators relate to "make a positive contribution" and "achieve economic well-being", but these relate to big government challenges, such as reducing child poverty and integrating housing and transport policy

Children's Plan timeline

The DCSF have released a timeline of the actions intended to develop from the Children's Plan, up to 2010.

Key publications and implementation pieces to look out for:

- Play pathfinders start (Spring 2008)

- Bercow Review into children with speech, language and communication needs (Summer 2008)

- Youth Runaways action plan (Summer 2008)

- Strategy document on alternative provision (Summer 2008)

- Play strategy (Autumn 2008)

- Rose review of primary education interim report (Autumn 2008)

- Child's workforce strategy document (Autumn 2008)

- Child's workforce expert group report (Autumn 2008)

- Pilots of alternative provision start (Winter 2009)

- Rose review of primary education, final report (Spring 2009)

- HMCI review of progress on special educational needs (Summer 2009)

- New primary curriculum agreed (Autumn/Winter 2009)