A recent case, which has been widely publicised, demonstrates the importance of early years providers ensuring their policies and procedures for vetting, staff recruitment and safeguarding are in line with statutory requirements as well as the guidance set out by Ofsted.
A nursery owner was issued with a Notice of Intention to cancel her registration by Ofsted in April 2018 as a result of a safeguarding investigation, which uncovered that she had employed her partner who had a criminal record for a number of offences and a caution for wilful neglect.
It is reported that the nursery owner initially informed Ofsted that she was not aware of her partners caution for wilful neglect from 2005, however, when she provided a copy of her partners DBS certificate to Ofsted, it was noted that this did disclose the caution.
Requirements
One of the areas Ofsted considers when carrying out inspections is the safeguarding procedures in place - and this includes recruitment processes. Ofsted expects early years settings to be able to demonstrate that they meet all regulations and duties for the purposes of safeguarding judgements in the inspection handbook. At an inspection, inspectors are expected to check that the provider is able to produce evidence of suitability of relevant staff and adults that work at and attend the setting.
Section 3 of the Early Years Foundation Stage framework (“the Framework”) outlines the standards that all early years providers must meet to ensure that children are kept safe and specific guidance is provided on suitable people, staff qualifications, training, support and skills. Specifically, providers, other than childminders, must obtain an enhanced criminal records check in respect of every person aged 16 and over, including for unsupervised volunteers and supervised volunteers, who provide personal care, and who:
- Works directly with children;
- Lives on the premises on which the childcare is provided and/or;
- Works on the premises on which childcare is provided (unless they do not work on the part of the premises where the childcare takes place, or do not work there at times when children are present).
‘Personal care’ includes helping a child, for reasons of age, illness or disability, with eating or drinking, or in connection with toileting, washing, bathing and dressing.