Nurseries and childminders get online rating

Parents can now compare all the registered nurseries and childminders in their area on the basis of their official Ofsted reports after the results were posted online from today.

Childcare and early years education is rated in the same way as schools, with inspectors deciding whether a provider is delivering outstanding, good, satisfactory or inadequate services. London parents can now search on the Ofsted website for all the childminders and nurseries in a 20-mile radius of their postcode.

Individual childminders have their identity and specific address protected by a unique reference number but parents can still see how far a person is from their home and then enquire about it via the Ofsted site.

The Government says the service will give parents more information about where to send their pre-school children. Nurseries and childminders have been subject to Ofsted inspections for some years but it is the first time the public has been able to go to a one-stop website for information.

www.ofsted.gov.uk