Clause 5 - Duty to inspect certain schools at prescribed levels
Education Bill [Lords]
10:00 am
Mr Derek Twigg (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Schools), Department for Education and Skills; Halton, Labour)
We all agree that those with an interest in an inspection should have access to the inspection report. Clauses 14 and 16 require the chief inspector to send copies of the report to specified persons, including the appropriate authority or the proprietor of the school. He must then send copies of the full inspection report to parents and any other person who asks to see a copy.
Under the new system, parents will receive a copy of the full report, rather than just a summary, as they do under the current system. Staff will have access to the report through the school’s routine communications mechanisms. The legislative safeguard that underpins the process is their right, which is like that of any other member of the public, to request a copy of the report from the school. In addition, Ofsted publishes all section 5 in-school inspection reports on its website, making them accessible to anyone with an interest.
Amendment No. 2 would place a duty on the chief inspector in England to ensure that parents with children attending child minding or day care provision are sent a copy of the inspection report. We recognise the importance of parental involvement in the early years inspection process. Parents can exercise influence in securing improvement in provision where necessary, in addition to having the information that they need to make informed choices about the provision they use.
It is our intention that inspection reports are sent to parents and that they are notified of forthcoming inspections. The new duty will, however, be on registered child care providers rather than Ofsted. Schedule 7 already includes a regulation-making power that enabling regulations to require a registered child care provider to send a copy of the report to parents. That is in line with distribution requirements on school governing bodies.
We consider it more appropriate to specify who should be notified and receive copies of early years inspection reports in the regulations, because it would not be appropriate to provide all parents of children attending child care with a copy of the report. We need to provide for exemptions in the case of open access schemes and certain types of crèche provision where there is limited parental contact or a very temporary relationship between the child care provider and the parents.
It would not be appropriate for parents to receive copies of reports in such cases. For example, where a parent leaves a child at a shopping centre crèche for a couple of hours and there is no ongoing relationship between the parent and the crèche provider, it would clearly not be appropriate for the provider to be under a duty to send a copy of the latest inspection report to all parents who have used the facility. The regulation-making power enables such exemptions to be specified. It would be impractical for the duty to send reports to parents to rest with Ofsted. Ofsted does not keep records of the children who receive child care or their parents, but it will continue to publish inspection reports on its website, which will include from April 2005 childminding reports with personal details.
I hope that the hon. Lady is reassured by the Government’s commitment, which I set out today, to the degree to which parents play a role, especially in early years inspections, and that she will seek leave to withdraw the amendment.