This is the second national report on The Quality of Pre-school Education. It reports on the evidence from registration inspections of pre-school centres across all authorities in Scotland. It follows on from the first national report of 1997-98 and the pilot report of 1996-97. It is anticipated that there will be one further report covering registration inspections over the 1999-2000 period.
Inspections covered centres in the private and voluntary sectors and a number of local authority centres. It did not include local authorities' nursery schools or classes or nursery classes in independent schools.
The findings from the inspections show good and very good provision in some centres across all the sectors inspected.
Improvements were needed across the sectors in setting aims and policies; programmes for physical development and movement; planning procedures and assessing children's development; and arrangements for staff review and the overall monitoring of the quality of provision.
Attention to the emotional, personal and social development of children was a strength across all sectors. Relationships with parents were good or very good in almost all centres. Staff teamwork and deployment was good or very good in most centres.
In general, this report shows that the standards of provision defined in the first national report have been held and, in some instances, improved upon. These include: programmes for knowledge and understanding of the world; provision for play; planning and assessment and aspects of quality assurance. An overall summary of improvements is included in the conclusion to this report.
The data will be of particular interest to centres in their own self-evaluation and local education authorities in partnership with other providers. The challenge to improve consistency in the quality of practice for all pre-school children continues. All organisations and authorities should consider the findings of this report carefully and use them in the improvement of their own overall quality.
Kathy Fairweather, HMCI (0-14, SEN)
June 2000
The pre-school initiative aimed to expand educational provision in Scotland for children in their pre-school year, assure its quality, and promote diversity and parental choice. The overall policy context altered from the voucher scheme of 1996-98 to local authority led partnership arrangements. This report covers the first full year of the partnership arrangements where funding was available for 4 year olds but not 3 year olds.
Pre-school education in Scotland is delivered in a wide range of settings. This report is based on evidence from voluntary centres, private nurseries and local authority community centres. The information comes from 279 pre-school centres which had applied for registration and were inspected in 1998-99. Of the 279 centres, 70 were from the voluntary sector, 163 were from the private sector and 46 were from the local authority. It should be noted that none of the local authority centres were nursery schools or classes. Most were community based centres and had been run by different, or joint, local authority departments, e.g. social work and education, to provide a variety of pre-school and childcare services. These included facilities for early assessment and extended support for families.
HMI used published pre-school performance indicators in assessing standards and quality in all inspections. These were made available to all centres in the document 'Performance Indicators and Self-Evaluation for Pre-School Centres'. For most centres self-evaluation using performance indicators was new.
The indicators used covered three of the four key areas of pre-school provision. These were:
The indicators from the fourth key area (children's progress in each of the key aspects of their development and learning) were not used in these registration inspections.
Evaluations of quality using the indicators are made against four levels:
The following word scale is also used in the document:
The report layout follows the same format as the published pre-school registration reports. It is subdivided into the following main sections:
1. Introduction.
2. Accommodation, resources and staffing.
3. How effective are the centres?
4. How well are the centres managed?
5. Key strengths.
6. Main points for action.
Data boxes are used in the report to summarise relevant background information, features of good practice and development needs from across all centres. This information is given in the following format:
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Box 1: .........................
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A total of 279 registered pre-school centres were inspected during 1998-99. Of the 279, 70 were from the voluntary sector; 163 were from the private sector and 46 were local authority run centres.
In order to gain admission to the register providers were asked to submit a profile of educational provision for evaluation by HM Inspectors. In this profile they described and evaluated their accommodation, resources and staffing, their arrangements for curriculum and assessment and procedures for management and quality assurance.
HM Inspectors of Schools then evaluated the profiles of education provision (PEPs) to ensure that they contained evidence of the centre's capability to meet the government's quality standards for pre-school education.
Following inspection, copies of the published reports were sent to the centres and to members of parliament. From May 1999 this was extended to include all relevant members of the Scottish Parliament. The reports were available on request to members of the public from relevant HMI offices. This report collates the overall evidence from these individual reports and evaluates the effectiveness of the centres in meeting the quality standards in practice.
Accommodation
Across most centres, accommodation was generally of a good or very good standard. In 20% of voluntary centres and in 10% of private centres and local authority community nurseries provision was only fair.
Locations ranged from purpose-built premises to the shared use of community halls where staff were required to set up activities on a day-to-day basis. Where provision for physical play was limited some centres had managed to make effective use of other local facilities, eg. school hall, play park, soft play areas.
See Box 1 for development needs noted during inspections.
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Box 1. Development needs noted in accommodation included:
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Resources
The acquisition and use of resources was good or very good in 85% of all centres.
The most effective centres had a well organised range of good quality resources to support the five curriculum programmes. Many centres made good use of local library services to increase their range of resources. A small number had access to, or their own provision for, computers.
See Box 2 for development needs noted during inspections.
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Box 2. Development needs noted in resources included:
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Staffing
Staffing levels were generally very good or good in all centres. As recommended for registration under the Children Act, 1989, voluntary and private centres had a ratio of staff to children of at least one adult to 8 children.
See Box 3 for a sample of the types of qualifications found in pre-school centres.
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Box 3. Types of qualifications found in pre-school centres:
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