Ofsted to privatise early years inspections

Ofsted is going to privatise nursery and childcare inspections in England from September. The Tribal Group, an outsourcing firm, says it has won a £64m contract to inspect almost half of ­England's nurseries. The firm says the five-year contract covers 45% of early years providers in the south of England. The inspectorate is in the concluding stages of choosing the rest of the private companies to which it will outsource early years inspections. Ultimate responsibility for the inspections will still lie with Ofsted. Tribal's chief executive, Peter Martin said: "We are delighted with this opportunity to extend our relationship with Ofsted into this important area of work. We are also looking forward to welcoming the Ofsted staff transferring to Tribal, who bring with them great depth of expertise and experience in this sector." But the public sector union Unison said it was against the plans. Unison's national officer for Ofsted Jon Richards said: "Many Ofsted early years inspectors have worked in childcare, meaning they are experts in assessing what makes a good standard of care for babies and toddlers."Ofsted is currently in the process of making 10% of its early years inspectors redundant. Any further job cuts will make workloads intolerable. Staff cannot do more work in less time. It will make it harder for them to inspect nurseries properly, which could see standards of care for vulnerable young children slip."