Can Quality of Family Day Care Provision in England Be Assessed Accurately Using the Family Day Care Rating Scale? A report on reliability

Abstract

The Family Day Care Rating Scale (FDCRS; Harms & Clifford, 1989) was developed in the USA. The scale attempts to define quality in family day care for pre‐schoolers and to provide a standardised way of assessing it. The FDCRS has been shown to have good reliability and validity in the USA and Canada. However, the rating scale has never been used to assess quality of family day care in the UK. This paper describes data collected from 104 family day care providers (childminders) in England using the FDCRS. It reports on the internal consistency of the FDCRS subscales and the validity of aggregating the subscales to derive one single measure of quality. Analyses suggest that the scale may provide a useful global measure of quality. However, not all subscales yielded good internal consistency. Recommendations are made as to how the FDCRS could be modified for effective use as a research tool in England.