Ten years for early years

26 Sep 2011

This September marks 10 years since Ofsted took over the responsibility for regulating and inspecting all registered early years childminding and childcare settings in 2001.

Before 2001 the responsibility for the regulation and inspection of childcare lay with 150 individual local authorities. As there was no national set of standards, each local authority set different standards for providers to meet, and took a different approach to regulation and inspection. To accompany the change to Ofsted, the then Department for Education and Skills (now the Department for Education) established a set of National Standards covering the five categories: full day care; sessional daycare; crèches; out of school care and childminding. Ofsted developed a national system for regulation and inspection for all childcare providers, wherever they were located.

During the decade there have been several changes to early years regulation. We are continuing to listen to the views of parents and providers in our efforts to continue improving standards in all childcare. The trend over recent years has been one of continuous improvement in the quality of early years and childcare provision and inspection and regulation have played a significant role in achieving these improvements.

To find out more about early years and childcare inspections visit the Inspecting early years and childcare pages for providers.

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Ten years for early years

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