Women in the labour market: Childcare from the perspective of a nursery owner

In England, childcare and education is provided by settings registered with the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted) on their Early Years and/or Childcare Register.1 These settings are either part of the maintained nursery school (MNS) sector or the private, voluntary and independent (PVI) sector. Maintained nursery schools, run in the same way as schools, are headteacher led, whereas the PVI sector has different qualification requirements and includes settings such as childminders, pre-schools, day nurseries, forest schools and some nannies.2 Both the MNS and the PVI sectors are required to follow the statutory framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage and are subject to inspection by Ofsted.3 While many of the issues faced by settings and by parents are the same in both sectors, my specialism is in the PVI sector so this piece tackles the broad sector-based issues through this lens.