Early years settings prepare for new Ofsted inspection system

Early years settings are gearing up for the introduction of a new Ofsted inspection regime, due to come into force from September.

Aligned with the launch of the revised Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), assessments are intended to focus more on children’s personal, social and emotional development and allow providers greater input. They will also reduce the amount of paper-work settings must complete and focus more on practitioners’ interaction with children.

The new inspections will focus on the progress children make in their learning and look at how provision supports different groups of children, in particular babies and two-year-olds accessing the free entitlement.

Claire Schofield, policy director at the National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA), says: “Taking the focus much more to learning and development and how settings are supporting children and parents is the right way to go. That raises the bar ?for providers, but also for inspections.”

But there are still issues that need to be ironed out, Schofield warns. “If you are putting a greater emphasis on scrutinising how good the learning and development in a setting is, then the person judging that needs to be very competent,” she explains.

“We have heard from Ofsted that inspectors will all have to have early years degrees and time in practice, but they also need sound understanding of high quality practice.”

In order to give providers more autonomy over management, Ofsted is removing its “conditions of registration” for settings on the Early Years Register, and referring practitioners to the EYFS.

Liz Elsom, divisional manager of early years and childcare at Ofsted, says: “We have traditionally placed conditions on everybody’s registration, particularly around the numbers of children they may look after and whether or not they can provide overnight care.

“All of these matters are dealt with in the EYFS and we feel it is a sign of the sector’s maturity that they don’t need Ofsted to tell them how to do it any more.”

Schofield agrees that the move will reduce paperwork for Ofsted and settings, but says that less prescription from the inspectorate must be accompanied with greater support for settings.

“It enables the sector to be a lot more responsive to the needs of children and parents, for example if a setting needs to expand to provide for more two-year-olds,” Schofield says. “But settings will have to be confident over how they are meeting the EYFS requirements and we will have to look at how we can support that.”

Another aim of the new inspections is to increase the use of observation of child and staff interaction. In group settings, an early years professional or manager will be able to join the inspector in observations “to see what the inspector is seeing and understand how the inspector comes to their judgments”, according to Elsom.

NDNA says this measure received a warm welcome in pilots that took place this year. But the association is concerned that with no-notice inspections, settings might not have an appropriate manager on-site when an inspector visits.

Schofield says: “It is a good way for the person managing the setting to have a dialogue with Ofsted about practice and demonstrate how they are improving outcomes for children.

“But it is important the leader is there. One of the big issues we have is that inspection is still no-notice, so if your manager or early years professional is on a training course or on leave, that leadership has to be fulfilled by a deputy.

“It is unimaginable that you would have a school inspection without the head teacher there. To us, this is the equivalent that nurseries face.”