Guidance

Protocol between Ofsted and the Women’s Aid Federation of England

Updated 22 December 2023

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/protocols-between-ofsted-and-other-organisations-in-relation-to-childcare/protocol-between-ofsted-and-the-womens-aid-federation-of-england

Purpose

This protocol sets out the working relationships between the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted) and Women’s Aid Federation of England (Women’s Aid).

Ofsted is required to regulate and inspect childcare providers based in women’s refuges. Where childcare takes place in a women’s refuge, we take additional steps to improve safety and ensure confidentiality.

Women’s Aid is a registered charity. It acts as an umbrella body to provide information and support for local domestic abuse organisations, including those who deliver refuge services in England. However, each organisation delivering refuge services is responsible for its own management. Women’s Aid does not regulate refuge services, but does have a voluntary set of national quality standards, which its members can apply to be accredited against.

Responsibilities of Women’s Aid

Women’s Aid aims to empower women and children to live independent lives, free from fear and abuse. Its legal constitution is to provide information and support for its national network of member organisations, which provide refuge and community-based domestic abuse services. This support does not cover any form of funding or legal advice. There may be groups that provide refuge accommodation but are not associated with Women’s Aid.

Women’s Aid defines refuge services as

those that deliver accommodation and support only for women and children experiencing domestic abuse which is tied to that accommodation. Residents will receive a planned programme of therapeutic and practical support from staff, and access peer support from other residents.

Ofsted’s role

Ofsted regulates and inspects to achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. For the purposes of this agreement, we regulate and inspect early years providers, childcare and childminder agencies.

We are responsible for regulating and inspecting the following early years and childcare providers:

  • Ofsted-registered childminders and other childcare providers included on the Early Years Register and the compulsory part of the Childcare Register who care for children under 8 years old
  • Ofsted-registered childminders, home childcarers and other childcare providers included on the voluntary part of the Childcare Register
  • childminder agencies included on either the Early Years Register or the Childcare Register, or both, according to whether they are an early years childminder agency or a later years childminder agency, or both

The legislation and regulations under which Ofsted regulates include the:

Further details about the statutory guidance and regulations that form the legal basis of our enforcement work are available in the early years and childcare enforcement policy.

Requirements for childminders and childcare providers

We regulate Ofsted-registered childminders, childcare providers and childminder agencies against the requirements of 2 separate registers. These are:

  • the Early Years Register (for those providing care for children aged from birth to the 31 August following the child’s fifth birthday)
  • the Childcare Register

The Childcare Register is divided into 2 parts:

  • the compulsory part, for those providing care for children from 1 September following the child’s fifth birthday and up to their eighth birthday
  • the voluntary part, for those providing care for which registration is not required, but who meet the requirements and choose to register

All providers on the Early Years Register must meet the safeguarding and welfare requirements and most must also meet the learning and development requirements set out in the Statutory framework for the early years foundation stage.

Providers on the Childcare Register must meet the requirements set out in the Childcare (General Childcare Register) Regulations 2008.

These requirements are set by the government.

Powers and duties

Ofsted regulates childcare providers against all relevant legislation and requirements.

We are responsible for ensuring that Ofsted-registered childminders and childcare providers, and those running childminder agencies, are suitable to care for or be in regular contact with children, and that those providers continue to comply with the requirements of their registration.

We are also responsible for ensuring that all people aged 16 years or over who live or work on premises where Ofsted-registered childminding and childcare on domestic premises take place are suitable to be in regular contact with children. If a childminder is registered with a childminder agency, these responsibilities sit with the agency.

We have a range of powers to carry out these regulatory responsibilities. These are set out in the early years and childcare enforcement policy. We can:

  • grant, refuse or cancel registration
  • impose, vary or remove conditions of registration
  • grant or refuse applications for variations to conditions of registration
  • prosecute providers for specific offences under relevant legislation
  • suspend registration (childcare providers only)

Inspection and reports

Ofsted has a duty to inspect childcare providers who are registered on the Early Years Register at intervals set out by the Secretary of State for Education. These intervals are set out in the Department for Education’s policy papers: inspection of early years register providers: requirements for Ofsted and Childminder Agencies. Ofsted publishes a report on the provision following the inspection.

Ofsted carries out compliance inspections of 1 in 10 providers on the Childcare Register by agreement with the government. An outcome letter is sent to the provider after the visit.

Who to contact at Ofsted

Our central point of contact for the public and all providers is the contact and administration team. The team is the first point of contact and is responsible for:

  • giving information to providers and guidance on using our website, including technical help for online applications
  • carrying out all relevant suitability checks, including social services checks, references and Disclosure and Barring Service checks, on all applicants and anyone connected with an application
  • processing our registration work across early years and social care
  • the regulatory risk assessment of childcare providers

See the contact us section for the contact and administration team details.

Working arrangements

What Ofsted does

Ofsted will:

  • provide guidance specifically for inspection staff and refuge services
  • be aware of the use and purpose of refuge services
  • work within its guidance to ensure the confidentiality of locations and persons living in refuges
  • promote awareness of the protocol by publishing it on its website; informing local authorities and their children’s information services; informing local safeguarding partners; and raising it with the stakeholder group (National Consultative Forum)
  • brief its regional centres to ensure that staff are familiar with the protocol

What Women’s Aid does

Women’s Aid will:

  • recommend and promote the protocol arrangements to all organisations delivering refuge services that are its members
  • support and advise members to meet and maintain the requirements for registration
  • tell its members that they are required to register childcare with Ofsted, unless they are exempt from registration
  • work with Ofsted to raise awareness of the protocol among its members

Guidance for providers

There is more information for providers in ‘Guidance on regulating childcare in women’s refuges’.

General information

What is a women’s refuge?

A women’s refuge offers a package of housing and support services, including temporary crisis accommodation, to women and children who have been subjected to domestic abuse. Children who live in refuges can vary in age from birth to 16 years. Refuges are safe houses and as such are in protected locations. In order to keep women and children safe, PO box and actual addresses of refuges are never made public. Many organisations delivering refuge services are members of Women’s Aid, with which Ofsted has established this protocol.

What childcare provision do refuge services provide?

Refuges provide a variety of childcare provision. Some provide creche care, where parents may or may not be present with the children. Some offer full- or part-time childcare. Some provide group work, activities, emotional support, after-school clubs or holiday clubs for the children and young people resident in the refuge, to help them make sense of their experiences and build their confidence. These are delivered by trained workers. Many refuge organisations offer childcare before and after school and during the school holidays. Several organisations delivering refuge services offer multiple types of care.

Why is this classed as childcare on non-domestic premises and not childminding?

It is not usually appropriate to register a refuge service’s childcare provision as childminding. Instead, we treat the childcare offered by the refuge in the same way as we would treat childcare offered by hotels or bed and breakfast accommodation. If children aged under 8 years attend, and the care provided is not exempt from registration, the provision must be registered as childcare on non-domestic premises. The childcare should take place in rooms or parts of the premises that are dedicated to childcare during the time of use. The people who provide and manage the childcare and those working directly with the children should be checked to ensure they are suitable to work with children. People who are not helping to provide childcare, other than the children’s parents, should not be allowed unsupervised access to children. This removes the need for the childcare provider to check all persons aged 16 and over who are living and/or working in the refuge (excluding the childcare premises), where the population of the house is constantly changing.

Is the childcare provision required to be registered if parents are present on the premises?

A refuge is not required to register childcare provision that takes place for a particular child for 2 hours or less per day. Nor does it have to register childcare provision that takes place on 14 days or less in a year, provided that it has notified Ofsted in writing 14 days before the first occasion when childcare is provided. Where parents are present on the premises, the childcare must be registered if it is provided for 4 hours or more per day and constitutes a longer-term commitment to provide care – that is, it is not a creche.

The regulatory processes

When an application form, allocated inspection or complaint information indicates that the provision is within a women’s refuge service:

  • a female inspector will carry out any visits to the premises
  • an appropriate member of administrative staff will make any required telephone calls
  • Ofsted will ensure the allocated inspector and administrator are aware that the childcare is based in a refuge and take into account the sensitivities involved
  • when contacting Ofsted, women’s refuges may ask to speak to a female customer services adviser
  • Ofsted will ensure that the address of the premises is stored securely on internal staff systems and is only accessible on a need-to-know basis; this access would usually be confined to the inspector dealing with the registration or inspection
  • under no circumstances will the address be given in response to anyone writing to or telephoning Ofsted
  • Ofsted will not release the registration details to the public, including to the relevant Family Information Service (FIS) (setting the ‘special considerations’ flag prevents details of the registration from being released to FIS in the automated data transfer; it also prevents publication of any inspection reports on Ofsted’s website)
  • Ofsted will not share registration details with any other organisation without the express prior approval of Women’s Aid
  • Ofsted will restrict the registration details on any register that it holds
  • Ofsted will not publish any inspection report

Space and numbers

It is not possible to know in advance the number and ages of children who may be present in the refuge at any one time. Some childcare provisions may cater for children across the whole age range, and also accept children aged 8 years and over. The number of children under 2 years of age may vary considerably; therefore, it may not be possible to allocate a totally separate area for their care.

Inspectors should be flexible if refuge organisations temporarily exceed their normal staff to children ratios because of a sudden influx of children. In these circumstances the refuge service should have contingency plans that include how it will return ratios to normal as quickly as possible. Inspectors may wish to advise that the refuge service check the terms of its insurance in these situations.

New registrations

When Ofsted receives an application to register childcare in a women’s refuge, the application team member will:

  • set the special considerations flag
  • notify the team manager in a memorandum that the application is from a women’s refuge

The team manager will liaise with the regional inspection team to allocate the application to a female inspector.

If the contact and administration team does not identify that the application for registration is from a women’s refuge organisation, but the inspector does so either during the initial telephone call or at the visit, the inspector will ask the allocated application team member in a memorandum to set the special considerations flag.

At the registration visit, the inspector will:

  • note in the information to be carried forward from the registration that the childcare is within a women’s refuge and will require a female inspector
  • check that the refuge organisation has applied for the right category of childcare
  • make sure that the registered person has an appropriate day-to-day management role in the refuge organisation
  • review the safeguarding arrangements for children in the refuge
  • complete the registration process as quickly as possible

If a male inspector is allocated in error, he will immediately ask his team manager to re-allocate the application to a female inspector.

The inspection process

The inspection must be handled with appropriate sensitivity. The inspector will:

  • be female
  • check that the special considerations flag is set to ensure that the report is not published on the Ofsted reports site
  • consider requests to defer an inspection in line with our published deferral policy.

Contact us

General enquiries: Ofsted’s contact and administration team

Email: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk

Contact form: Contact us form

Telephone: 0300 123 1231

Our helpline is open from 8am to 6pm (Monday to Friday).

Email address for local authorities: extranetqueries@ofsted.gov.uk

General enquiries: Women’s Aid

Email: info@womensaid.org.uk

Website: www.womensaid.org.uk

Address: Women’s Aid Federation of England, PO BOX 3245, Bristol BS2 2EH, England

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