Scotland is moving towards an integrated care and education inspection system.
Ruth Thomson outlines the new duties
Just as the early years curriculum in Scotland takes a markedly different approach to that in England, so Scotland's new inspection system will differ from that south of the border. Early years experts were unanimous in their praise of the Scottish curriculum and vitriolic in their criticism of initial proposals for the early learning goals. So, will Scotland again emerge with the better system?
Under the new inspection system, set out in The Way Forward for Care: A Policy Position Paper , a new body, the Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care, will carry out an integrated care and education inspection in all early years settings - voluntary, private and local authority - at least annually. The HMI will inspect settings receiving funding for pre-school education every five to seven years and the Commission will not be required to inspect in the same year as the HMI (see box). Responsibility for regulating the early years workforce will pass to the Scottish Social Services Council (see box). Both bodies will be established next year.
Ruth Jessop, owner of the Potty Place in Edinburgh, welcomes the move to a single inspection. 'At the moment, we are inspected too often, and it's very disruptive for the children. It's also very difficult when one set of inspectors say one thing and then another set come along and say something else,' she says.
The creation of a Commission with powers to inspect all settings will put the maintained, private and voluntary sectors on a level footing for inspections at least, and, says the policy paper, will achieve two key aims of the review: to create an inspection body that is independent and that will apply the same standards. Previously, care inspections were carried out by 32 local authorities, which were working to different standards and procedures and which were themselves service providers and not always rigid in inspecting their own provision.
Details of the English system under the new arm of Ofsted have yet to be revealed, but inspections are likely to be less uniform. Joint care and education inspections are likely to be introduced in private and voluntary sectors, but the sector will remain subject to two kinds of 'education' inspections - Section 122 inspections for private and voluntary provision and Section 10 inspections for maintained and independent schools. (See 'Seeing double', Nursery World , 27 January 2000, page 10.) The Care Standards for England were just being published as Nursery World went to press (see News, page 4).
Drew McCanney, senior inspector for under-eights at Fife Council, believes Scotland will achieve the right balance between care and education under the new system. 'I think the Scottish system will be stronger than the English because of the fact that we are trying to co-ordinate HMI and care and that it's not HMI-driven. The regulatory system has been built around care, with education seen as part of it. The impression I have got is that nobody down south wanted Ofsted to have it. The Better Regulation Task Force did a report on early education in which they recommended that care and education should be integrated but Ofsted should not be the lead body.'
The new Scottish Commission will carry out its inspections according to a set of standards to be devised by the National Care Standards Committee. There will still be an emphasis on inputs (such as staff numbers) but an even greater emphasis on outputs. 'In other words,' notes the policy paper, 'regulation will focus on the quality of experience offered to the child.'
To ensure a consistency of approach, the Commission and HMI will work closely together and 'use the same overall framework of care standards'. The standards, says the policy paper, will be relevant to all providers, 'although different standards may be particularly pertinent to a particular age group or type of premises' and will ensure an inspection system that is 'not unduly onerous'.
In practice, says Drew McCanney, 'I think the settings that aren't pre-school-education funded will have a slightly less onerous, light-touch inspection and that quality assurance could be a feature of their inspection process.'
The standards will include the provision that the manager of the service should be a fit person and 'will also require services to be operated on a sound financial footing', a current requirement for care homes but one new to early years provision.
'Where the service is owned by the manager,' states the paper, 'the manager will have to demonstrate that s/he is not bankrupt and has the resources or financial backing to run the service on a stable basis.'
Ruth Jessop says, 'I'd be sceptical about the benefits of these financial checks.' She would want Commission inspectors to have the necessary financial awareness to recognise what were short-term blips in income and long-term borrowing requirements when it came to assessing private nursery balance sheets. She would also want council nurseries to undergo the same financial scrutiny.
A Scottish Executive spokesperson has confirmed that the differing financial situations of providers, such as childminders and out-of-school clubs, who often depend on start-up grants, will be taken into account.
As part of the standardisation process, adult:child ratios for children aged three and over will be 1:10 across all sectors for three-year-olds. The new care standards are minimum requirements, however, and it is likely that some purchasers and providers will set higher standards, leading as at present to local variations. 'It is for purchasers and commissioners to set their own expectations for the care they buy through the contracting process,' notes the paper.
A COSLA spokesperson confirmed that to improve quality, 'councils may want higher standards than those required, but we want to work in partnership with the providers.'
Siobhan Wilks, senior operations manager for the Red Apple Private Nursery Schools, believes that while 'in principle, the streamlining is good', a 1:10 ratio may be too high to ensure quality in full daycare provision and that purchasers and providers will implement their own higher standards, acknowledging that local interpretations are 'an ongoing frustration'.
Local variations may also persist in the employment of teachers. More Scottish Executive guidance aimed at bringing about 'a greater flexibility over the deployment of teacher resources throughout the pre-school sector' will follow, guidance which the Commission will be expected to take into account in its inspections.
In practice, Drew McCanney feels that this will enable councils to make the best use of teacher time in local provision by, for example, organising peripatetic groups of teachers.
Of biggest concern to providers is the question of fees. The Scottish Executive will provide initial start-up funding for both the Council and Commission but in the longer term wants them to be funded by fees paid by regulated providers. Drew McCanney believes there may have to be a rethink on funding as 'to fund the Commission wholly on fees will require big increases in fees.' Increasing fees by too little, he believes, would have implications for the quality of the Commission's work, while increasing them by too much may result in an increase in unregulated childminding.
A Scottish Executive spokesman said the Executive was aware it would have to strike a balance and not levy charges providers could not afford. Whatever the fees, Scotland may yet have a system worth paying for.
The new system in Scotland
Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care
Responsibilities The Commission will register and regulate all care services including care homes for adults, nurse agencies and early education and childcare. Nannies will not be regulated, though safeguards will be introduced.
Ages Regulation will be extended to services for children aged under 15 or under 17 for children with disabilities, rather than eight as at present.
Scottish Social Services Council
- The Scottish Social Services Council will establish, in phases, registers of key groups of care staff and publish codes of conduct and practice. Commission registration and inspection staff will be included in the first phase and all staff working in early education and childcare in the second.
- As a further safeguard to ensure children's safety, the Council will operate a statutory index of adults deemed unsuitable to work with children.