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 More early years and childcare settings, including providers across the South West, 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 child-minders - 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.

In the South West, 13 day care providers and 39 childminders were rated as 'Outstanding' following Ofsted inspections between 1 January and 21 March 2008.

Polly's Day Nursery in Brownshill, Stroud has been running since 1990, and has another branch in Inchbrook, which also got an 'Outstanding' report last year. Anna Mead, one of the nursery's partners said of their Ofsted report:

"The whole team is very proud of having our hard work validated in this way. We are lucky to have a team of talented, focussed and motivated people working at the nursery, who are regularly monitored internally to ensure they are meeting their performance expectations. We are also constantly looking for new ideas to improve the service we provide, either from Ofsted reports for other providers around the country or from a range of other places."

Scallywag's Pre-School in Beaworthy, Devon, also had an 'Outstanding' Ofsted report earlier this year. Pennie Channing, Chair of the pre-school's committee said:

"Everyone at Scallywag's Pre-School was thrilled to get an 'Outstanding' grade from the inspector in March. All the staff and committee have worked really hard to achieve this excellent result."

Another early years provider which achieved an 'Outstanding' report this year, was Downs Park Day Nursery, in Bristol. Debbie Munk, Head of Nursery, said:

"Our outstanding inspection was wonderful recognition of the consistent hard work and commitment of the whole team to provide a rich, caring and learning environment for the children in our care, whilst embracing all the principles of good quality early years provision."

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."