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More early years and childcare settings are meeting requirements set by the Government than three years ago, with recommendations made in inspections being an important catalyst for improvement. This is the message from a new report published today by Ofsted, the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills.

‘Leading to Excellence: A review of childcare and early education provision 2005-08’ is the third review of inspections of registered childcare and early education. This year, the report focuses on how well settings - such as nurseries and childminders - are organised, led and managed to promote positive outcomes for children and ensure they progress well.

The report reveals significant improvements in early years services over the last three years. While less than 80% of registered settings met national standards in 2005, now almost all do (97%) and two thirds (60%) are good or outstanding.

Notably, 91% of parents responding to an Ofsted survey, and using childcare which had recently been inspected, said inspection helped settings to improve.

Her Majesty's Chief Inspector, Christine Gilbert said:

“Good organisation, leadership and management are at the heart of effective provision. We hope this report will serve as a useful tool to help those who are making good progress to carry on their excellent work, to motivate those that are satisfactory to do better and to ensure all children benefit from improved outcomes.

“It's particularly encouraging to note that where we found inadequate provision in previous inspections, these settings have improved significantly. However, there is still more to do to ensure that outcomes for all children are of a consistently high standard and that every child has access to the same quality care, particularly in areas where provision is generally poorer.”

Whilst the early years sector is doing well overall in promoting positive outcomes for children, concerns remain about variations in the quality of childcare across the sector. For example, the quality of provision in full day-care settings is better than out-of-school schemes. Also, among the childminders inspected, the level of good childcare has fallen and the level of inadequate childminding has also risen over the last three years.

There are also variations across the country. Services are generally of a lower quality in areas where families are experiencing high levels of deprivation. For example, in the 30 most deprived local authority areas, 53% of childminders provide good or better childcare, compared with 60% in the rest of the country.

In the latest cycle (2005–08), 3% of childminders, 4% of day-care settings, and 6% of out-of-school settings are inadequate. However, the vast majority (95%) of inadequate childcare provision has improved following inspection and is now judged to be satisfactory or better, although 5% has not yet done so. Ofsted considers inadequate provision unacceptable and is monitoring this closely.

Ofsted inspections continue to be an important catalyst for improvement. Over the last three years, Ofsted gave 94% of providers inspected at least one recommendation on ways to do better.

The report will also help parents know what quality they should look for in the care of their children. For example, when choosing childcare, parents will want to find out how the new provider will identify and respond to the needs of their child; make sure their child is kept safe throughout the time they are in the setting; record what their child does and the progress the child makes, and tell the parent about this.

Christine Gilbert adds:

“We want England’s early years and childcare provision to be the best in the world for the 1.7 million children who use those services Ofsted wants all providers to use this report to inform their own self-evaluation about how they can improve their leadership, management and organisation”.

1 ‘Leading to excellence: a review of childcare and early education provision 2005–08 with a focus on organisation, leadership and management’ is published on 27 August. It gives examples of good practice that inspectors have seen. It includes a PowerPoint presentation and list of questions for providers and those who support them. A more detailed version of the report is available as a website. You can find it at www.ofsted.gov.uk/leadingtoexcellence

2. This report draws on evidence from 90,000 inspection visits of registered early years and childcare provision from birth to 8 years and visits relating to Ofsted’s regulatory responsibilities.

3. Additional evidence comes from a survey of leadership and management in full day-care settings, a study of settings that were part of quality assurance schemes, and feedback from conferences for outstanding providers.

4. The report follows two previous surveys: Safe and sound and Getting on well, which explored what best practice looks like in helping children to be healthy, stay safe, enjoy themselves and achieve, and make a positive contribution.

5. The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted): Since April 2007, Ofsted has the responsibility for the inspection of adult learning and training, the regulation and inspection of children's social care, the inspection of the Children and family court advisory and support service (Cafcass). Ofsted also inspects or regulates and inspects  childminders, full and sessional day-care providers, out of school care, crèches, adoption and fostering agencies, residential schools, family centres and homes for children, all state maintained schools, some independent schools, pupil referral units, the Children and Family courts advisory service (Cafcass), the overall level of services for children in local authority areas (through Annual Performance Assessments and joint area reviews), further education, initial teacher education, and publicly funded adult skills and employment based training.