Nursery World - Ofsted dismisses calls to temporarily suspend early years inspections due to Covid

As Nursery World reported yesterday, the NDNA wrote to Ofsted calling for routine early years inspections to be put on hold because of ‘unsustainable’ levels of staff absences, however the inspectorate has now confirmed inspections will continue as normal.

The NDNA wants routine inspections to continue to be put on hold for the next few weeks PHOTO Adobe Stock

The NDNA wrote to the inspectorate to ask for the temporary pause on routine inspections to be extended by a few weeks while nurseries cope with the latest wave of the pandemic.

Ofsted has now confirmed however it will not put inspections on hold and will continue as normal.

The inspectorate temporarily paused early years inspections temporarily in December until the start of the spring term.

NDNA’s chief executive Purnima Tanuku said, ‘With providers telling us they are facing unprecedented staff absence rates, they will be very disappointed that Ofsted hasn’t taken these concerns on board and agreed to pause routine inspection activity.

'It does not make sense that Ofsted halted routine inspections in the run-up to Christmas but have reinstated them now, albeit with some mitigation measures in place, when Covid cases and consequently absences are at a record high.

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