- How do I find a childminder, nursery, creche, out of school club, holiday playscheme or playgroup?
- How do I find a report for a childminder, nursery, creche, out of school club, holiday playscheme or playgroup?
- Who deals with questions from prospective and current childminders and day-care providers, parents and the public?
- What do I do if I have a complaint or concern about my childcare?
- How do I become a childminder?
- The provider I am interested in is not listed on the website
- When will a provider be inspected?
- How soon after an inspection is a report available?
- We have been judged Outstanding; when can we use the outstanding logo on our stationery and signage?
A. Childcare providers must register with us and display a registration certificate. Find their conditions of registration and latest inspection report using our postcode search. Not all childminder's names and addresses are currently published for data protection reasons. However, you can contact your local Children's Information Service (details available from the Childcare link website) for a full list and vacancy information.
A. Reports for childcare inspections are now available on the website. New reports are published on the website every day. To find reports for your area, use the postcode search box in the report section of this site. Childminder reports have been published since April 2005. For reports prior to April 2005, please ask the childminder.
A. Contact the Ofsted helpline on 08456 404040, or email us at enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk
A. Please contact the Ofsted helpline on 08456 404040, or email us at enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk For further reading, see 'Concerns and complaints about childminders and day-care providers' HMI 2597a. We investigate all concerns to make sure childcarers continue to meet the National Standards.
A. Prospective childminders should contact their local authority. You can get your local number from Childcare Link on 0800 234 6346 or www.childcarelink.gov.uk. You can also email to info@opp-links.org.uk You may also wish to visit the childcare careers web site, at www.childcarecareers.gov.uk
A. The website lists the conditions of registration for registered childcare providers, and their published inspection reports. If you cannot find a report for a provider you are interested in, there are three main reasons for this: -the inspection may have taken place recently and the report is still being processed - the provider is newly registered and has not had its first inspection - the type of care the provider offers does not require registration. You can also make sure a provider is registered by asking to see their registration certificate. This should be displayed in the setting.
A. The DfES sets out the maximum interval for all types of childcare inspections. This is currently three years. Ofsted has developed a series of prompts for early inspection within the three-year interval. We want to see childcare settings running as normally as possible. To help us do this, we will not normally give any notice of the inspection. This means that you will not be able to find out when an inspection is planned. Inspections from the programme which began in April 2003 are published on the site. The Ofsted helpline will be able to advise if the provider you are interested in has been inspected recently: call 08456 404040, or email us at enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk. Reports of inspections that took place between September 2001 and March 2003 are not available on the site and do not include quality grades.
A. Reports are normally sent to the provider within three weeks of the start of the inspection, and published on the website at the same time.
A. We supply the art work and design guidance to outstanding providers when we publish the list of outstanding providers with our annual report, usually in October of every year. So, for a provider judged outstanding between September 2006 and August 2007, it would be supplied in October 2007.
We know that there is considerable interest amongst outstanding providers in being able to use the logo as soon as the judgement is awarded, and we are looking at how we can do this. If there is a change we will write to providers judged outstanding during 2006/07, and supply the logo and guidance, as quickly as we can.
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