CEY1720
Additional written evidence submitted by Ofsted
Inspection framework for early years provisions and childminders
The Education Inspection Framework (EIF) sets out Ofsted’s inspection principles and the main judgements that inspectors make when inspecting state-funded schools, further education and skills providers, non-association independent schools and registered early years (EY) settings in England. In this way, the framework ensures comparability when learners move from one setting to another. It supports consistency across the inspection of different remits.
The EIF moves inspection away from a focus on data and outcomes in favour of a focus on the curriculum and what children know, can do and understand. Prior to the EIF, far too much time, work and energy was spent on producing assessment data that Ofsted might want to see. There was an emphasis during inspection on data that evidenced how children are progressing and tracking outcomes for particular cohorts of children. The production of this data often meant an over-emphasis on observation and assessment and, in some cases, early years practitioners/ childminders working to checklists of developmental milestones, rather than focusing on delivering a broad curriculum for children and measuring its impact. Concerns about the length of time assessments were taking took practitioners/childminders away from the most important aspect of interacting with the children and supporting their play and learning.
The details of how Ofsted inspects registered EY provision and childminders is set out in the inspection handbook for registered early years provision. The handbook describes the main activities that inspectors undertake.
The handbook has three parts:
The areas that are inspected and judged by inspectors are:
Inspectors use a four-point scale to make all judgements. These are:
While the principles of inspection and the methodology, which are set out in the inspection handbook for registered early years provision, are applicable to the inspection of all EY provision, including childminders, inspectors use their professional judgement and expertise in applying these to the different types of setting they inspect. For example, in relation to childminders, our handbook states:
“207. Childminders have only a small number of children, inspectors are not able to track a representative sample of children in the same way as they would in larger providers (see paragraph 71) for more information on tracking). Nevertheless, they apply the same principles in terms of evaluating the childminder’s practice and its impact on children’s learning, development and well-being. We will prioritise tracking the experiences of children who are eligible for the early years pupil premium (see paragraph 69) or subject to a child protection plan or child in need plan.”
The inspection requirements for Ofsted are set out in a legal remit letter by the Secretary of State for Education and published online by the DfE. The Secretary of State requires Ofsted to inspect all providers on the early years register, both childminders and group provision within 6 years from the date of their last inspection. Our inspection handbook for registered early years provision also states the following reinspection timescales for providers judged less than good:
“18. All provision judged as inadequate will be re-inspected within 6 months.
19. All childminders, pre-school provision and nursery provision judged as requires improvement will usually be re-inspected within 12 months.”
When an inspector judges the overall effectiveness of provision to be inadequate, we may also take enforcement actions which is monitored between inspections. These cases are usually reserved for circumstances with serious concerns. Full details about the options for monitoring provision that is judged to be inadequate is set out within our Early years and childcare providers judged inadequate or not complying with requirements at inspection guidance.
We ensure clarity and continuity in our inspection work by ongoing training of our inspector workforce. We also have a quality assurance process in place which is detailed in our published guidance. In addition to this, we regularly engage and communicate with sector representatives across the EY sector. This helps us to understand and follow up on common issues and misconceptions. Schools, registered early years providers and childminders can use the “what EY providers and practitioners need to know” page to find out what they need to know about delivering the early years foundation stage (EYFS) and about Ofsted inspections.
Since March 2022, we have run a series of EY Curriculum Roadshows, aimed at EY practitioners. The purpose of these Roadshows has been to tell the sector more about how we look at language and communication on inspection and what we have learnt about the impact of the pandemic.
The evaluation schedule in the EY inspection handbook sets out the criteria and areas that inspectors gather evidence on. Information about teacher qualifications and group sizes is one strand of evidence collection, all of which is focused on establishing the quality of the EY provision through the lens of trying to understand what it is like to be a child within that setting. We do not require providers to supply information in any particular format, or to maintain records, other than as required by Department for Education’s (DfE) statutory EYFS guidance.
Childcare provision in deprived areas
Our latest statistics show that the number of registered early years and childcare providers continues to fall with around 64,000 providers on 31 December 2022.
The distribution of providers varies, with 4,000 fewer providers registered in the deprived and most deprived areas of the country compared with the less and least deprived areas.
However, our published findings at the end of March 2022 showed that a higher number of providers in the most deprived areas are joining our registers compared with any other area.
Fourteen per cent of early years registered providers are currently (as at 31 December 2022) judged outstanding. This does vary across the country with 11% of outstanding judged in the most deprived providers and 18% in the least deprived. There is less variation in inspection outcomes when ‘good’ providers are included. In England, 96% of all early years registered providers were judged good or outstanding. In the 'most’ deprived areas, we judged 95% of providers good or outstanding compared with 97% in the ‘least’ deprived areas.
We have no market oversight responsibilities and so are unable to comment on the reasons for the reduction in the number of providers and places, or on accessibility.
Our early years and childcare official statistics are published bi-annually. We also publish additional management information bi-annually aggregating registered childcare providers and inspections and their outcomes.
Overall standards in the early years
Ofsted’s Annual Report in 2021/22 stated that we judged 83% of early years registered providers good or outstanding. This was the first full year since we resumed inspections following the COVID-19 pandemic. We deliberately prioritised inspection to those who were:
This was a fall of six percentage points when compared with 2019/20 (the first year of EIF), where our prioritisation of inspection was different and towards the end of our last inspection cycle.
The table below shows a breakdown of the key judgements and their outcomes for early years providers who were judged less than good in their overall effectiveness in 2021/22. We also found over half of these providers had ineffective safeguarding.
Key judgements of early years providers judged less than good in 2021/22
| Outstanding | Good | Requires improvement | Inadequate | % judged less than good |
Quality of education | 0% | 15% | 53% | 32% | 85% |
Behaviour and attitudes | 0% | 23% | 46% | 31% | 77% |
Personal development | 0% | 8% | 41% | 51% | 92% |
Leadership and management | 0% | 0% | 47% | 53% | 100% |
Overall standards in the early years cont.
We have been reporting about the challenges EY providers face with staffing. In Education recovery in early years providers: summer 2022 we reported that providers continued to struggle to recruit high-quality qualified staff. Since the start of the pandemic, they have also reported increased difficulties in retaining staff. More recently, we reported on the large and varied workforce in early years as part of our Best start in life part 1: setting the scene research review. This includes a range of studies that link higher staff qualifications to better outcomes for children. For example, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has produced several reports on structural quality of the early years workforce: identifying what the sector needs to do to recruit a high-quality workforce.[1] They include:
Therefore, we are pleased the DfE has recently revised the criteria for EY practitioner qualifications.
The first example of this is the recent revision of the Level 3 Early Years Educator criteria. These will be a better basis for a curriculum for trainees and therefore future practitioners. The level 3 criteria are the bedrock of all EY qualifications, so are just the start of the review process.
Child Ratios
There is flexibility within the current EYFS, in requirement 3.31, which allows a provider to make changes to the childcare ratios if they believe they can maintain the safety and security of the children within their care. It is for providers to determine how to deploy staff in a setting to ensure that children’s needs are met, and that staff deployment does not affect the safety and security of children.
We know, through frequent contact from providers and through inspection evidence, that providers find ratios difficult to understand. We have recently published a blog about how staff to child ratios work in practice.
Inspectors will usually only focus on ratio requirements during inspection if there are specific concerns about the quality of staffing or the safety of children due to staff deployment. Ofsted inspectors do not constantly carry out headcounts when inspecting. Our focus is on what it is like to be a child in a setting and report on this through inspection. We will continue to dispel myths and further promote understanding on the childcare ratios through continued engagement with the childcare sector.
It is difficult to predict how the ratio changes will impact on the sector. We refer to some of the difficulties EY settings were having with staffing challenges in our education recovery briefings, which include insights from our inspections. Where we find serious deficiencies relating to staffing, these generally relate to quality of practice, not numbers of staff.
We will continue to include any failures to meet the ratio requirements which may have a detrimental impact on children’s education, health and safety, in individual inspection reports and welfare requirements notices.
May 2023
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[1] See the “Staff in the early years sector” section, within the research review paper, as set out here: Best start in life part 1: setting the scene - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)