Ofsted Big Conversation - More than 300 people unite for Ofsted action

The campaign is gathering momentum as confidence in Ofsted's ability to inspect and regulate the sector is now at an all time low.

Early years practitioners, nursery owners, childminders, local authority advisers and even ex-Ofsted staff joined in the weekend's debate, keen to share their experiences, or as one meeting organiser put it, their 'horror stories'.

Delegates at each meeting were asked to consider seven key questions on specific issues on inspection that the sector wants Ofsted to address (see page 6 for a summary of responses).

That information has now been collected and shared with Nursery World and on the Ofsted Big Conversation website.

Early years providers are also being encouraged to log details of inspection visits on the website to compile a body of evidence from across the sector.

June O'Sullivan, chief executive of the London Early Years Foundation, whose debate on LinkedIn sparked the weekend of meetings, told Nursery World, 'People are getting restless. The ball is in Ofsted's court now. I'm hoping that we get some kind of response to show that they're listening. We'll be patient for two weeks, but right now Ofsted is on a notice to improve.'

She added that one of the suggestions that arose from the meetings was the idea of a practitioner forum with Ofsted that would be set up on a regional basis.

Representatives from the largest sector membership organisations, the Pre-School Learning Alliance and the National Day Nurseries Association, were in attendance, as well as nursery groups such as the London Early Years Foundation, Co-operative Childcare and Child First, who all hosted meetings.

Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Pre-School Learning Alliance, who personally attended the London and Worcestershire meetings, said, 'There was universal agreement that confidence in Ofsted has never been worse.'

He added, 'Given the number of practitioners who took the time to attend the nine Big Conversations across England and the strong feeling of injustice from those who spoke, it is abundantly clear that the current approach by Ofsted simply cannot continue.'

Purnima Tanuka, chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association, said, 'The important thing now is to keep the momentum going. We will be continuing discussions with our members on how to take the issue forward and talking to the Ofsted Big Conversation organisers and Pre-School Learning Alliance so we have a co-ordinated approach to tackling these problems.'

Freedom of Information request

Meanwhile, the Pre-School Learning Alliance has had to re-submit a new Freedom of Information (FOI) request, after Ofsted partially rejected the original request because the data on quality assurance is 'not easily accessible' and therefore too costly to compile.

The alliance had asked for detailed information going back two years on early years inspections, including data on the number of providers that had been downgraded following a complaint-triggered inspection.

Ofsted refused the request, stating that while it holds the data, retrieving it on inspections carried out before the new inspection framework was introduced in September 2012 would require a manual search of its inspection records, and that to do this would cost more than the £600 limit set to respond to FOI requests.

Neil Leitch said, 'Given the serious concerns about the fairness of Ofsted inspections that have been raised, Ofsted's admission that it would need to manually collate the data on quality assurance downgrades is extremely worrying. Isn't this something it should already be monitoring?

'The rejection of this aspect of our FoI request will inevitably be interpreted by the sector as proof that Ofsted has little understanding of the important role that accessible, accurate data plays in inspiring confidence, openness and transparency.'

The alliance has been forced to file a new request for data on complaint-initiated inspection downgrades relating only to inspections that have taken place since September 2012.

The new request, which was filed on 18 September, also asks for information on the number of formal complaints about early years inspection judgments made by providers, and a breakdown of the outcomes of these complaints, over 12 months.

Commenting on Ofsted's failure to respond to the original FOI request because it exceeded the £600 limit, June O'Sullivan said, 'I've suggested that we all put a tenner in and crowd-fund it so they can afford it.'