Ofsted have launched their consultation on the changes to the way that inspections are carried out.  They want to know views on their proposed plans for inspecting school and other settings, including views on the report card system they are proposing. 

A few thoughts:

• the consultation information is written as though addressing parents, but it's clear that they also want the opinions of professionals involved (which is you!).  Some sections are marked for professionals only and proposals 4 and 5 only relate to state funded schools.
• There's an acknowledgement that they need to re-set their relationship which they say they have already started in terms of openness.  They share a link to their Inspector training through the Ofsted Academy.
• Ofsted talk about the need to recognise that they will inspect sectors differently 'to recognise their priorities and contexts'. They split out Early Years from schools - but we know that provision under a school's registration is currently inspected very differently from e.g. PVIs.  If the School based nurseries expansion increases will this create a wider gulf? 
• They talk about taking context into better account (which we welcome) and sharing excellent practice. 
• They are open that they intend to focus on experiences and outcomes for disadvantaged children as if the provision is right for them it will work for everyone.  This is an interesting concept!

The consultation runs until the 28th April, with the outcome of consultation due in the summer

Changes are planned to come into force in November 2025.   

Proposal 1 – Report cards

Aim is to give a more nuanced view than the ‘overall effectiveness’ grade we currently still have in EY.  This is positive although there are questions about this will impact on funding as there are currently restrictions for EY providers with RI or inadequate.

The report card system was much more popular with parents in the Big Listen consultation than with professionals, who preferred a bullet point or narrative style judgement.

Proposal is a 5 point scale to grade different areas of work and alongside this a short description summarising the findings.

See a video on this here: https://youtu.be/bAlfI3nHTxI

For EY the areas proposed are:  

• leadership and governance
• curriculum
• developing teaching
• achievement
• behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines
• children’s welfare and well-being
• inclusion
• safeguarding

This compares to the current areas which are:

• overall effectiveness
• the quality of education
• behaviour and attitudes
• personal development
• leadership and management

They say that these areas have been chosen so that they can answer the question ‘what is it like to be a child… in this provider’ which is something identified as important by children in the Big Listen.

The intention of the report card is to make it easy for parents to compare providers and they specify that ‘parents should be able to compare their local registered early years settings with early years provision in schools…’   which is interesting given the current differences in inspection!

The five point scale is proposed as:

• Exemplary (highest quality provision)
• Strong
• Secure
• Attention needed
• Causing concern (lowest quality provision)

They expect that most providers will fall in the middle 3 categories with the top one being reserved for truly excellent practice which will potentially be shared through the Ofsted Academy and will be moderated and confirmed by the national quality and consistency panel. The use of 5 categories gives more scope as they rightly say – the current Good judgement covers everything from just out of RI to almost Outstanding.  This allows for more nuance.

They talk about shining a spotlight on areas that need improvement rather than a floodlight on the whole provision.

Safeguarding would still be met or not met.

They are also proposing to include data alongside the report cards on the context of the setting.  This is to help people make national and local comparisons and compare those working in similar contexts.  The data could include characteristics of children/learners including those who are disadvantaged and those with SEND, outcomes (performance data and trends in this) absence and attendance and local area data.  There is no comment in the information about whether these would all apply to early years.

Proposal 2: Education inspection toolkits

These are a replacement for Inspection frameworks and will contain the standards against which Ofsted will inspect.  Inspectors will have operating guides and specific training to help them apply the toolkits to different types of provision. They describe the quality expected at each point on the scale and set out the range of standards of education and care.

You can view the EY Inspection toolkit here: Early years inspection toolkit

This includes all the areas and is worth having a look at.  There is a lot there!  In particular look at developing teaching and attainment.   Inclusion is thoroughly embedded with each area having an inclusion element as well as inclusion as its own area.

Specifically for Early Years Ofsted say: “The Big Listen feedback told us to adapt our inspection practices to be bespoke and proportionate to the size of settings and the number of hours they care for children. The early years toolkit builds on our existing strong principles while aiming to be more flexible and adaptable to various settings, including childminders and out-of-school providers.”  There is a question then about if the toolkit will be suitable for different types of providers.

Proposal 3: Inspection methodology

This is about the process of inspection and how Ofsted will instil their core values of professionalism, courtesy, empathy and respect.   With a few exceptions, the reports that we’ve heard of recent inspections (and our own experience) have been that the tone of inspections has already changed.  They feel more compassionate and collaborative which is something to be applauded.

There will still be an initial phone or video conversation with leaders.  This will start to build relationships, understand the context and explore strengths and areas that leaders are working on.   For schools they are removing the ‘deep dive’ methodology.   

Start point will be discussing and observing the providers work against the secure column.  Leadership of each area is prioritised first, along with inclusive practice.

If the emerging grade for an evaluation area is at odds with the leaders’ views the inspector will ask them who else they should speak to in order to gather evidence within the time available. Professional dialogue between inspectors and leaders will be a priority.

Proposals 4 and 5 are specifically about state funded schools and don’t apply to stand-alone early years provision.

Their summary is as follows:

• replace the section ‘grading scale used for inspection judgements’ with the 5-point scale and remove the ‘overall effectiveness’ section
• replace the section ‘key judgements’ with the new evaluation areas for each education remit
• replace the section ‘what inspectors will consider when making judgements’ with information about our new methodology and links to the relevant toolkit
• explain the purpose and intended impact of our education inspections

The proposals in this consultation aim to improve the experience of inspections for professionals and practitioners in our sectors.

Over the next few months, we will be assessing the impact of our proposed reforms on leaders’, practitioners’ and inspectors’ workloads, mental health and well-being, through visits to providers and external review.

In the meantime, we want to hear your views about the likely implications of our proposals.

There are then questions about workload as they are keen not to increase this, and also about any potential unintended consequences. 

The main issues that we can see are as follows:

• The continued disparity between school-based provision where the EY inspection is a tiny fraction of the whole school inspection and not in any way as in depth as a stand along provision.  There is no recognition of this, but where the EY provision is registered under the school registration it’s not clear how this could be rectified.
• Are there unintended consequences of the contextualisation?  Would it influence providers decisions on who to accept in a setting?
• Are the areas (particularly developing teaching and achievement) really the best for EY?
• How will funding decisions be made (where currently RI or Inadequate means no additional children with funding). 
• The ‘toolkit’ appears very onerous on leaders.  Will this make it even harder for settings to get willing committees or lead to more frustration for managers working under ineffective committees?
• This is a lot of work and major overhaul.  Will it really be ready to go live in November? 

This link has lots of information including the sample toolkits, a video explaining the consultation and the consultation itself: Improving the way Ofsted inspects education - GOV.UK