What are the new rules and dispensations on inspection under the current restrictions? Melanie Pilcher talks about how to adapt to Ofsted’s expectations

The unpredictability of the Covid-19 outbreak has bought challenges for Ofsted, which has had to balance its regulatory and compliance functions with the limitations imposed by the public health emergency. Its overall aim has been to ensure that registered childcare provision continues to operate safely. Its focus is on:

  • provision that causes it concern
  • the need to register new provision
  • expansion to existing provision.

Providers are facing their own unprecedented challenges, including where disapplications and modifications to the EYFS have had to be implemented. So what are Ofsted’s intentions for the coming months? Who can expect an inspection and when it is likely to happen?

‘Assurance’ inspections

ARTICLE UPDATE 25.02.2021 - Plans to reinstate assurance inspections have now been cancelled and routine, full inspections will resume in the summer term. Italicised content is now out of date

For full information please see here: https://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/news/article/ofsted-early-years-assurance-inspections-cancelled-ahead-of-return-to-full-inspection

All routine, graded inspections remain on hold until the summer term. All planned inspection activity will be carried out remotely in schools until after the February half-term, with more details yet to be published. Early years ‘assurance’ visits will be paused until after the February half-term.

Between February half-term and the summer, Ofsted will use risk assessment to select for assurance inspections nurseries it has not seen since they first registered and/or where it has concerns about learning and development. Ofsted will not be carrying out assurance inspections on childminders because they face ‘added pressures’ such as home-schooling their own children while having family members working from home.

Assurance inspections will:

  • find out ‘what it is like’ for children there
  • seek assurance that providers continue to meet requirements to remain on the early years register, or the childcare register
  • issue a report that informs and reassures parents about what is happening in their child’s setting.

The assurance inspection will not result in a judgement of quality but will consider whether the setting continues to meet EYFS requirements (subject to any disapplications and modifications that the provider has applied). Ofsted will also make a judgement about the effectiveness of safeguarding.

Assurance inspections will result in one of three possible outcomes: ‘met’, ‘not met with actions’, or ‘not met with enforcement.’ Ofsted will issue a report for parents that will explain what the provider is doing to create a high-quality setting. The report will identify any weaknesses that have led to a ‘not met’ judgement, and from which any actions raised. It will report on what settings that have met the requirements need to do better, but will not raise recommendations.

The assurance inspection process

A notification call will be made to the provider and will include discussion about the practical arrangements for the inspection, including any protective measures the provider may have in place and their arrangements for having visitors on site. The inspector will also ask if there are any confirmed cases of Covid-19 among staff or children and/or if any staff or children are self-isolating. From 28 January, providers must use the online notification form to notify Ofsted of such significant events.

Inspectors will be steered by the existing guidance in the Early years inspection handbookcombined with the challenges presented by Covid-19, including those that have resulted in the provider implementing any EYFS disapplications and modifications. They will use the criteria set out in part 2 of the handbook as they consider the extent to which leaders and providers plan, design and implement the curriculum. To be confident that providers are at least meeting the EYFS requirements, they will consider how they:

  • meet the learning and development requirements (if appropriate, i.e. unless unable to due to Government restrictions)
  • meet the safeguarding and welfare requirements
  • develop and deliver the educational programmes, if appropriate
  • identify children’s starting points and ensure that children make progress in their learning and development through effective planning, observation and assessment, if appropriate
  • safeguard children
  • work in partnership with parents, carers, and others
  • offer an inclusive service
  • evaluate their service and strive for continuous improvement.

Despite the challenges the sector faces, every child attending early years provision deserves the best possible experience in a safe and secure environment. It is also important to consider the different emphasis being placed on some aspects, in particular safeguarding, partnership with parents and ensuring an inclusive service (see box).

Return to routine inspections

Over the coming months, Ofsted will discuss its approach to routine inspection with sector representatives and test it through a series of pilot visits, with routine graded inspections resuming during the summer term of 2021.

From the summer term this year, early years providers will be inspected in a six-year window from the date of their last inspection. Ofsted says these arrangements offer a ‘new, more proportionate and flexible approach to inspection’ and ‘more consistency for Good and Outstanding providers’. These will be scheduled on Ofsted’s most current risk assessment of the provision, including those that are not yet judged to be Good or Outstanding and those where there are significant concerns.

Some arrangements will not change; for example, Ofsted will still aim to inspect all providers within 30 months of registration, those requiring improvement within a year, and inadequate provision within six months, and an inspection can still be brought forward where there are concerns.

Changes to EYFS requirements

Some EYFS requirements have taken on a different focus during the pandemic. As part of their own self-evaluation, providers should consider all the safeguarding and welfare requirements with increased emphasis, in particular:

  • Safeguarding How have the experiences of vulnerable children impacted them during lockdown and beyond? Are practitioners alert to what is happening in a child’s life – especially where attendance has been sporadic during the pandemic?
  • Partnership with parents How has the setting maintained strong partnerships with parents? What challenges are practitioners facing in engaging with parents who are not coming in? What about the vital key person relationship?
  • An inclusive service How can you ensure every child benefits fully from attending? What are the barriers that may prevent some from accessing the setting? How are any disapplications and modifications affecting the experiences of individual children?

FURTHER INFORMATION

Melanie Pilcher is quality and standards manager at the Early Years Alliance

FAQs

1. Can I defer an assurance inspection?

A. Ofsted has updated its deferral policy to reflect restrictions because of Covid-19 as potential factors for it to consider a deferral request. When it notifies you an assurance inspection will take place, Ofsted will consider any requests for deferral in line with deferral policy (see Further information).

2. Will Ofsted judge providers retrospectively, during an assurance inspection, for their response in lockdown to Covid-19?

A. The EYFS (3.44) states that the inspector may ask providers how they are meeting the EYFS requirement to ‘promote the good health of children attending the setting’. Settings ‘must have a procedure, discussed with parents and/or carers, for responding to children who are ill or infectious, take necessary steps to prevent the spread of infection, and take appropriate action when children are ill’. Inspectors will also consider the extent to which leaders and providers plan, design and implement the EYFS curriculum. They will have due regard for the limitations the pandemic has caused and any disapplications of the EYFS which are, or were, relied on.

3. Have all or some of the disapplications and modifications to the EYFS ended?

A. Updated arrangements were put in place from 26 September 2020 until 31 August 2021 to allow for Covid-19 restrictions that impact on the provider’s ability to deliver the EYFS. For the disapplications to apply, there must be Government restrictions and requirements in place and the provider must have deemed these restrictions to mean they are unable to deliver the EYFS as required.

Ofsted is clear that it will not take enforcement action against providers for not meeting the full EYFS if they are correctly applying the disapplied and modified requirements, but they must be using reasonable endeavours to meet the requirements where possible. In the case of the paediatric first-aid requirements, the term ‘best endeavours’ is used as a higher-level requirement that takes priority over other aspects of the EYFS that have been changed.

It is vital that providers check the detailed descriptions and circumstances of the disapplications and modifications for themselves.