Ofsted’s clear mission in the early years is to make sure that all children have the best start in life. We know that excellent early education and care can provide a child with the knowledge and skills they need to thrive throughout their later education and beyond. This is especially the case for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children, as well as those with SEND – because if we get it right for these children, we get it right for all children.
Our inspections give parents and carers the assurance that their chosen childcare is safe and providing high-quality care and education, and we never shy away from reporting when standards are not good enough. That is how we best serve the interests of children and their parents. But we know that there is room for improvement in our relationships with professionals across the early years sector.
Three weeks ago, we launched a consultation on a new way of inspecting and reporting on all types of education providers, including early years providers such as nurseries and childminders. We believe that the reforms we’re proposing will help raise standards of education and care for all our children, while also reducing the pressure of inspection on professionals.
Our proposals reflect the feedback we received in the Big Listen, Ofsted’s largest ever consultation, where more than half of respondents answered questions specifically about early years inspection and regulation. We heard from thousands of you across the sector about the changes you want to see in our work. Since then, we’ve made significant changes to the way we work, focussing on supporting the well-being of those we regulate and inspect. But the proposals in our consultation aim to take these reforms even further, and we believe that what we’re proposing strikes the right balance between reducing pressure on early years professionals and serving the best interests of parents and children.
During the Big Listen, the message came through loud and clear that we need to reset our relationship with the professionals we regulate and inspect, and rebuild trust in the way we carry out our work. Our proposals follow extensive conversations with government and sector representatives, and through them we want to build a much more collaborative relationship with the early years sector, based on transparency and the removal of any mystery from the inspection process. To do this, we will make sure that our inspection materials are easy to understand, that the standards all settings should be working within are clear, and that providers know exactly what we will and will not look at on inspection.
The Big Listen also clearly reflected a desire from parents, carers and professionals for us to move away from the overall effectiveness grade, and for our reports to include more detail and nuance about a provider’s strengths and weaknesses. So, we are proposing a new 5-point scale to grade areas of a setting’s work. Our new report cards will clearly set out the grades a provider achieved in each area, alongside a short description of our findings. This approach brings together the preferences of parents and early years professionals, offering the nuance that both want without the pressure and anxiety created by the overall effectiveness grade. A poll conducted by More in Common found that 65% of parents prefer this approach to the previous system and 82% felt the report card was easy to understand.
We also heard that early years providers want us to adapt our regulation and inspection practices to be better suited and proportionate to the different types of settings we inspect. So, rather than the current one-size-fits-all framework, our proposals mean we would inspect each education sector differently, to recognise their different priorities and challenges. For early years, our renewed inspection framework is based around the requirements set out in the early years foundation stage (EYFS). This sets out the standards from the Department for Education that all early years and childcare providers must meet for the learning, development and care of children from birth to 5. This is because we believe that inspection shouldn’t require anything additional from providers than what they are already expected to do.
In early years we are both the regulator and the inspectorate. In recognising this dual role, we have set clear expectations around meeting the minimum requirements of the EYFS. This is reflected in a banner you will see across the top of all the evaluation areas within the toolkit which clearly sets out the categories that providers who are or aren’t meeting the requirements will sit. Above all, we know that parents want their children to be safe and happy in the settings they attend. So, we will ensure that those that work with children are suitable and provide a safe culture in which all children, including the very youngest can thrive.
We know that the outcomes of our inspections can impact on ongoing funding entitlements. We want to reassure the sector that we are continuing to work closely with the Department for Education to make sure that we are able to support the continuity of this funding, while still striving to maintain the high-standards that our youngest children deserve. Where settings are not providing an acceptable standard of care and education, we will be aiming to return much more quickly to ensure that the right improvements have been put in place. Our proposals also include being able to change a grade quickly, where leaders have improved, so that settings do not have to sit for long periods of time on an inspection outcome that does not reflect the current quality of their provision.
To tailor the inspection process, we have produced an inspection toolkit specifically for early years providers, setting out the standards we will inspect against. This toolkit is different from the ones we’ll use to inspect schools and other sectors. We’ll also be developing operating guides and specific training for inspectors, so they know how to apply the toolkits in each type of provision – this means a childminder’s inspection will look different to a nursery inspection. The early years sector is vast, with many different types of provider of many different sizes. We strongly believe that our early years toolkit recognises these differences and will allow us to be more flexible to all the different kinds of setting on the early years register. But, without compromising on our existing strong principles and standards for children. We really welcome your views on this as part of this consultation.
We really encourage everyone to take the time to read about the changes we’re proposing and to think about how they could apply to you. We want to hear honest feedback from everyone affected by our work in the early years sector. We plan to implement the reforms in the autumn, but before that we will reflect on all the feedback we receive and test our plans so that we can refine and improve our proposals. We are determined that our reforms to inspection will drive even higher standards for children, and recognise the invaluable role of high-quality early education in setting every child up for later success.
