The comment was made by Rosemary Murphy, chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association, in response to claims by a Surrey-based charity, Disability Challengers, that Ofsted had 'shambolic' procedures and had lost paperwork relating to criminal record checks on its staff. The charity said it had sent more than 80 forms to Ofsted since the beginning of last year and that only three employees had received security clearance to work with children.
Mrs Murphy advised day nurseries to 'follow Ofsted's instructions to the letter, to make the clearance process as smooth as possible'. She added, 'Ofsted must also do its bit and make sure that it communicates clearly with providers about their applications and is specific about any additional information it requires.
'We are still hearing of lengthy delays and repeated administrative errors by Ofsted. We are now two years into the new system and people's patience is running out.'
An Ofsted spokeswoman said Disability Challengers' applicants had not been given security clearance because they had failed to forward a completed form from the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB). She added that delays were caused by 'the lack of evidence of an enhanced CRB check, or incorrectly completed forms'.
Ric Law, chief executive of Disability Challengers, said it was only told last month that a DC2 form, which must be filled in to obtain registration for individual employees, should be accompanied by a CRB form. The Ofsted spokeswoman said the new-style DC2 form was introduced in February 2003 and that any applicant who had not received security clearance 'would have been alerted to the lack of evidence of an enhanced CRB check on their application file, and asked to fill in a form and either it send to the CRB direct, or send it to the CRB via Ofsted'.
But Mr Law insisted that the charity was only told of the new requirements of the DC2 form in February this year. He said, 'Why did Ofsted not tell us before? We did not receive the DC2 forms until 6 February.' He said he had employed an administrative assistant who spent 50 per cent of her time processing paperwork relating to recruitment and most of it on matters relating to Ofsted.
Mr Law added, 'The S in Ofsted stands for standards and, as the body set up to establish benchmarks of excellence and inspect the standards of others, Ofsted's systems and procedures should be beyond reproach. But they appear shambolic.'