Inspections Clinic: Ofsted early years forum

The creation of Ofsted's new Early Years Pedagogy and Practice Forum has been welcomed by the sector as an attempt to reach out and work with those on the frontline of delivering early education and childcare.

"It's a mature step forward for Ofsted and a welcome relief from the previous ethos of talking at and down to the sector," says June O'Sullivan, chief executive of the London Early Years Foundation.

It is also a timely step as the regulator prepares for the launch of its new inspection framework in the autumn, adds Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance - one of the organisations represented on the group.

"The representation around the room, which combines experienced academics and practitioners, means Ofsted can continue with the development of its inspection regime in a way that is informed, constructive and which encourages inspectors to have professional dialogue during inspections with all staff in settings," he says.

Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association, agrees. "Through the forum we hope Ofsted understands the wider challenges that early years providers and their staff are facing and look at what support can be developed to assist them," she says.

"It is practitioners at the front end of delivering early education who are the experts - these are the people who need to know exactly what Ofsted wants from them."

The forum, which is the brainchild of Ofsted's deputy director of early education Gill Jones, is made up of 22 experts and will be led by Jones, Ofsted inspector and specialist adviser on the early years Phil Minns, and head of research professor Daniel Muijs. However, the lack of local authority representation has raised eyebrows among some childcare experts (see below).

Share expertise and best practice

According to Minns, the idea for the forum came out of a genuine desire to work with the sector, share expertise and best practice and continue to address myths and concerns around inspection.

"It's not like we have a secret list - we genuinely want people to understand what we're looking for," he says. "We want to try to remove some of the sting out of inspection by being as open as we can."

This will include discussing the new direction for inspection and what that means for early years provision. An issue that will feature prominently is the inspectorate's greater emphasis on curriculum, which has raised concerns among some in the sector that inspection of early years practice will become more aligned to that of schools.

One thing the regulator is keen to do is explain exactly what it means by curriculum in the same way it strived to define "teaching" a few years ago, says Minns, who is an early years teacher by background, and has worked as a head teacher and as an assistant director with responsibility for early years in a local authority.

"We wanted to correct the view that teaching was someone stood in front of a class with children sat in rows in silence while the teacher talks," he says.

"We want to do the same sort of thing with the curriculum so people understand that curriculum goes beyond the Early Years Foundation Stage and is actually what you as a professional are deciding your children need."

Ofsted's Bold Beginnings report on the reception curriculum found people did not recognise activities taking place outside "lessons" - such as snacks, breaks, the start and end of the day, and story time - were a really valuable part of the curriculum, says Minns.

"The ability to sit and chat over a banana, listen to and really enjoy a well-told story or tidy up at the end of a session are life skills and really important - and those are valid and valuable parts of the curriculum," he says. "Some people would argue they are probably some of the most important parts of the early years curriculum because those are the things that enable young children to go on and enjoy and learn."

The hope is the forum will meet at least six times a year. Meetings will focus on each of the key areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage in turn, starting with physical development then maths. Experts in specific areas will be brought in to kick off and inform debate.

Important conversations

"One of the really valuable things about the forum is we have got a mixture of people," says Minns. "We have people with real academic expertise and people working on the ground with children on a day-to-day basis."

This means that instead of having a theoretical discussion, divorced from reality, about what something should look like Minns says the group can "have really important conversations about the problems we face at the moment".

"For example, with physical development we know the vast majority of children are achieving the expected level by the time they reach the end of the foundation stage but on the other hand we have increasing levels of young children who are obese so we have got a bit of an issue there," says Minns. "If we simply work to the expectations of the foundation stage profile is that really enough?"

At the forum's first meeting, in March, members looked at links between physical development and emotional wellbeing and whether these were adequately understood, and the issue of risk assessment.

"We know children fall over and hurt themselves and that is part of growing up and learning how to control your body, your limits and caution, so it is really important we support the sector to carry out risk assessment appropriately," says Minns.

More than 1,400 people expressed an interest in joining the forum and Ofsted is keen to continue to engage with this wider group and is looking at ways to share learning from meetings - and get feedback - through webinars and other means, explains Minns.

Ofsted has said the forum will help shape its research programme. Will it also influence inspection practice?

"It will help us all to understand how these areas of learning are delivered and the challenges people face," says Minns.

"One of the things we like is when our inspectors can support settings to improve and really be quite diagnostic with them and identify really clear next steps for development. Anything we can do that helps our inspectors have a better understanding of how they can do that is good."

‘Forum a great idea, but council role and voluntary status are concerns'

By James Hempsall, early years and childcare consultant

I welcome this new opportunity to value, recognise and engrain core practice values in Ofsted's view of the early years landscape. As the sole arbiter of quality, it is massively important we all work together to ensure their inspections are fit for purpose.

It is great Ofsted is continuing to extend the ways it listens to and respects the sector. Early years is far from fully understood by all corners of the regulator. This will help. I applaud the inclusion of many providers of most, not all, types. I welcome the inclusion of academics and representative groups. However, I would have liked to see more local authorities involved. Their role, diminished as it is, remains essential for managing the local childcare and early years market and they retain the quality improvement support role with settings rated less than good by Ofsted. We must not forget this, or allow it to reduce further.

Important and professional

The role of the group is an important and professional one. I think it is disappointing and a mistake that it is a voluntary and unpaid one. We already ask much of the sector, and it is unreasonable to expect even more goodwill from a sector under significant change and challenge.

Ofsted's intentions of late have been generally good. We should all value a regulator that has a keen eye on innovation and raising standards. However, it has sometimes not got the nuance of the message right. It knows that because the sector reacts [to it]. I hope this process goes a long way to mitigating that risk.

INSPECTIONS SHORTS

SOCIAL CARE
The majority of children in care say they are well looked after by staff and carers, according to Ofsted's latest social care questionnaires. Of nearly 6,000 children surveyed in 2018, 94 per cent said they were well looked after "always" or "most of the time". A breakdown for different types of provision shows 79 per cent of children living in children's homes said they were always looked after well, while 17 per cent said that happened most of the time, three per cent said "sometimes" and one per cent "never".

YOUTH JUSTICE
An inspection has highlighted improvements at the young person's unit at Parc prison in South Wales, including a reduction in violence and more effective child protection procedures. The unannounced visit by HM Inspectorate of Prisons with the General Pharmaceutical Council, HM Inspectorate of Probation and Welsh education inspectorate Estyn in October last year praised positive relationships between staff and inmates. However, there was a need to improve risk management for boys leaving the prison.

EDUCATION
Ofsted inspectors will receive new subject-specific training on physical education (PE) and sport as part of efforts to improve the assessment of provision in schools. Speaking at the Youth Sport Trust's annual conference, chief inspector Amanda Spielman said that under the new education framework the focus would shift from checking how money was being spent through a school's "PE and sport premium plan" to looking at the wider PE curriculum.

SOCIAL CARE
Inspectors identified "considerable strengths" in individual organisations working to tackle child abuse in Bracknell Forest but found a lack of multi-agency work had led to too much pressure on children's social care. "For some children, the lack of full and prompt sharing of information and joint planning in the early stages impacts on the quality of the intervention they initially receive," said a joint report by Ofsted, the Care Quality Commission, HMI Constabulary and Fire and Rescue services, and HMI Probation.

YOUTH JUSTICE
Secure training centres (STCs) will be subject to a tougher inspection regime from this month following publication of Ofsted's new joint inspection framework. If an STC is rated "inadequate" by Ofsted, the Care Quality Commission and HM Inspectorate of Prisons, an urgent review meeting will be held with the Ministry of Justice. Inspectors will routinely check on progress within eight weeks of the initial inspection while the notice period STCs are given before inspection has been reduced to four days.