Care Standards Tribunal, 2025-02-10 (Ms Marcia Janice Steele v Ofsted)
| Jurisdiction | United Kingdom |
| Court | Care Standards Tribunal |
| Neutral Citation | [2025] UKFTT 00128 (HESC) |
| Date | 10 February 2025 |
| Registration Number | 2025/01360/EY-SUS |
1
First-tier Tribunal Care Standards
The Tribunal Procedure (First-tier Tribunal) (Health, Education and Social
Care) Rules 2008
2025-01360.EY-SUS
NCN: [2025] UKFTT 00128 (HESC)
Hybrid hearing held at the Royal Courts of Justice
On 5 February 2025
Before
Mr S Lewis (Judge)
Miss R Smith (Specialist Member)
Ms Marcia Janice Steele Appellant
-v-
Ofsted Respondent
DECISION
The Appeal
1. The Appellant brought this appeal (“the Appeal”) against a decision (“the
Decision”) by the Respondent, set out in a written notice dated 2 January 2025, to
suspend – or to further suspend – her registration as a childminder on the Early
Years Register, the compulsory part of the Childcare Register and the Voluntary
Part of the Childcare Register, from 3 January 2025 (“the Current Suspension”).
The relevant powers of suspension are set out in section 69 of the Childcare Act
2006 (“the Act”) and regulations 8-13 of the Childcare (Early Years and General
2
Childcare Registers) (Common Provisions) Regulations 2008 (“the Regulations”).
2. The Respondent opposes the Appeal.
3. In broad terms, the Decision, and the Appeal, primarily focuses on alleged conduct
or capability issues relating to the Appellant in the context of an eviction, carried
out by High Court enforcement agents or officers (“HCEAs”), on 12 March 2024
(“the Eviction”), at a property (“the Property”) where the Appellant had that day
been providing registered childminding services to a number of children (“the
Children”). The Property was also her home. The Appellant has been registered
as a childminder since 2011, from a variety of addresses over time.
Hearing and attendance
4. The Appellant attended and represented herself as a litigant-in-person. She made
some opening submissions, before giving oral evidence. She then made closing
submissions, after having heard those from the Respondent.
5. The Respondent was represented by Mr Praveen Saigal, a solicitor advocate. Ms
Sarah Stephens, an Early Years Senior Officer, gave oral evidence. Mr William
Chapman, a lawyer at the Respondent, also attended throughout to observe.
6. Although the hearing took place as a hybrid hearing, everyone attended in person,
and no one else joined via the remote video link or in any other way. The hearing
began around 10.10am and ended around 5.05pm. A break of 50 minutes or so
was taken for lunch. Shorter breaks, of around 10 minutes, were taken in both the
morning and afternoon sessions.
Evidence
7. The Tribunal had a large bundle of written documents (“the Bundle”), running to
1,809 pages. The Bundle was split into various sections, the last page being J54.
The Tribunal permitted some late documents to be added to the Bundle.
8. In addition, the Tribunal was provided with a considerable amount of video
evidence relating to the Eviction. Some footage was provided by the Appellant:
that seemed to have been taken on a mobile phone, by either the Appellant or,
perhaps more likely, one or other of her two assistants. The rest was provided by
the Respondent: it included footage taken on a phone by a parent of a child being
minded at the time of the Eviction, and a large amount of footage from body-worn
cameras worn, throughout the day of the Eviction, by three of the HCEAs involved.
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