Ofsted investigated 6250 complaints about providers of child care in the last financial year. Just 49 registrations were cancelled as a result of investigations.
Nearly half of complaints were made by parents or other service users, but 10 per cent were made by staff working for the provider and 14 per cent were made by other agencies such as social services. Nearly one in five concerns were raised anonymously or by members of the public, and only 7 per cent by Ofsted inspectors themselves.
More than one in six of the investigations included a child protection element and 601 of these were referred to social services. Most were complaints about staff handling children roughly, or smacking them.
During its second year as child care regulator, Ofsted investigated 55 per cent of all complaints. Another 39 per cent were investigated by the service provider who then reported back to Ofsted. In other cases the complaint resulted in the date of a scheduled inspection being brought forward.
Altogether 84,000 childminders and 34,000 providers of group care were registered during the year. Of these, complaints were received about 2500 childminders and 3,700 day care providers.
http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/publications/index.cfm?fuseaction=pubs.summary&id=3706
