Early years representatives to review inspection complaints

Ofsted national director of education Sean Harford confirmed the plans during #EYTalking on Twitter last month, which he co-hosted with deputy director of early education Gill Jones. Mr Harford was responding to a question from @NDNAtalk, the National Day Nurseries Association.

In a further tweet he added, 'We are looking to start by Jan 2016, but maybe earlier.'

Jennie Johnson, owner of Kids Allowed nursery group and organiser of the Ofsted Big Conversation (OBC) in the North West, welcomed the move.

'One of our key objectives is to lobby for a much fairer complaints process,' she told Nursery World. 'We're delighted that following lobbying from the OBC and others that there will now be an independent element within the complaints procedure.'

Ofsted's chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw has said that he intends to set up a high-level scrutiny committee in each of Ofsted's regions, made up of HMI and senior education practitioners not involved in carrying out inspections.

They will assess and rule on the internal reviews of complaints about inspection and their decisions will be binding.

More than 600 people attended the recent North West OBC in Preston. Several senior HMIs spoke about the consistency and training of inspectors, with updates on the Common Inspection Framework, 'British values' and the Early Years Pupil Premium. The North West OBC is planning another event in the spring.

Meanwhile, during last month's Education Committee meeting, Sir Michael confirmed that Ofsted was currently consulting on bringing early years inspections in-house. 'I am committed to doing as much as possible to bring them in-house, in the way that we have brought schools and applicable skills in-house. So we are consulting on it at the moment,' he said.

Ben Thomas, national officer at Unison, said the union welcomed Sir Michael's statement.

'This move will place early years inspection on the same footing as school inspections,' he said. 'Since early years inspection was transferred to Prospects and Tribal, we have lost many experienced full-time inspectors and both companies have significantly increased the number of freelance inspectors.

'We hope this move will improve the consistency, quality and accountability of inspections and we look forward to working with Ofsted in bringing the staff back in-house.'

Purnima Tanuku, NDNA's chief executive, said, 'The sector needs assurances that all future early years inspections will be robust and fair. It has become clear that the quality of the inspections is crucial so that the sector has faith in the system. Some settings are waiting for more than three years to get re-inspected.

'We also want Ofsted to bring in paid-for inspections, which is what we have been campaigning for now for a long time.'