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David Brill
The past year has seen a significant rise in the proportion of childcare centres that fail to keep children safe, according to the latest report from Ofsted.
The watchdog inspected 25,000 nurseries, creches and children's centres for this year's report, concluding that 4% were "inadequate" on health and safety grounds. Last year the figure was just 1%.
Out-of-school groups had the worst results, with 11% ranked in the lowest category by Oftsed, despite substantial recent government investment.
The authors of the report stressed that the rise in the proportion of schools judged inadequate was only the result of stricter guidelines, the bar having been raised on what counted as satisfactory care.
"Parents can be confident that the vast majority of childcare providers are meeting the national standards and providing good quality care and a safe and healthy environment for their children," said Dorian Bradley, Ofsted's early years director.
"However, there is still some way to go to ensure that every child in every setting is safe and sound, all day, every day. We will continue to monitor inadequate childcare providers closely and take enforcement action where necessary, to ensure that all children are kept safe and well-cared for."
Ofsted has acted in the past against unsafe childcare centres. In April this year, the Just Learning nursery in Cambourne, Cambridgeshire, was closed after a 10-month-old girl apparently died from choking on a piece of apple. The nursery had been previously investigated when a girl broke her arm there in 2004.
The latest Ofsted study was carried out between April 2005 and March this year, during which time Ofsted received almost 2,000 complaints about children's health and safety. Nearly half of the centres it inspected have been ordered to make improvements.
The Department for Education and Skills emphasised that cases of inadequate childcare remained unusual. "This report by Ofsted shows that the great majority of parents can be very confident that their children are kept safe and healthy in their chosen childcare setting," a spokesman said.
"The report shows that the additional significant investment this government has put into childcare and early years services is paying off by giving children access to high-quality care."
He said such access would "increase further when significant additional investment is made, for example in extended school provision: £160m has been invested so far in extended schools with £680m to come over the next two years."
The following correction was published in the Guardian's Corrections and clarifications column Saturday August 26 2006
In the article below we state that in April this year the Just Learning nursery in Cambourne, Cambridgeshire, was closed after a 10-month-old girl died, apparently from choking on a piece of apple. In fact, the nursery was reopened after about three weeks. Ofsted said a number of actions were agreed and satisfactorily completed and the nursery remained qualified for registration. The inspectorate said it had also investigated an incident in 2004 and was satisfied that the nursery had taken appropriate steps, including staff training.
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