Every provider knows that at some time they will get a knock on the door and find it is the early years inspector, arriving to carry out an unannounced inspection.
To give you the best start, it is essential that you are aware of the process and the inspector's role so you are able to work with the inspector to ensure a smooth inspection. This will help you to lead the inspection with a sense of ownership. After all, as a provider you know your setting better than anyone else.
Remember that even before the inspector visits your setting, she or he has already gathered evidence, for instance, reviewing your Self Evaluation Form (SEF) and last inspection report. There will also be a check to see if there have been any complaints and/or compliance issues against your setting. If the setting has a website the inspector will view this as well.
It is a good idea to record how you have acted on the recommendations made at your last inspection, making sure the evidence for these is available to show the inspector. They will explore via observations, discussions and/or by reviewing documents if these recommendations have been met. Your staff should be aware of what was set and be able to demonstrate in practice, and talk about, the improvements made to the inspector, if need be.
SETTING THE SCENE
On the day, the inspector should indeed show their identification on arrival and their badge and 'passport'. The registered person or the staff member who has the day-to-day responsibility should ask the inspector to sign the visitors' book and explain the mobile phone protocol, fire drill and the means of escape in case of a fire or another emergency.
As a reminder, add in bold at the bottom of the visitors' log - 'Check identification, explain fire drill and mobile phone policy'. That way, the member of staff who has let the inspector in is reminded to do this, as one would do for any other visitors.
The inspector will ask you to display a notice advising parents that the inspection is taking place. This is an opportune moment to inform the inspector of the best time to speak with parents.
The inspector should ask and be aware of any safety and cultural issues that they need to be alert to; as an example, no shoes allowed in the baby room, or philosophical practices such as Steiner.
The inspector should set the scene and explain the shape of the inspection, mindful that most of the time will be spent on observations of how the children learn and develop.
The inspector will ask to see a selection of documents to check for compliance and will definitely need to see the CRB log, recruitment records and qualifications: including paediatric first aid, induction, training and professional development records, planning and assessment documents and the complaints record, as stated in Ofsted's 'Conducting Early Years Inspections'. It may be wise to have these documents readily available to hand over, particularly bearing in mind that some of these documents will need to be stored securely, due to confidentiality.
TWO-WAY PROCESS
To assist the inspector with the inspection, especially if you have a large setting, it is a good idea to provide a plan of the provision stating the names of rooms, staff names - especially room leaders, teachers and early years professionals. Include the number and the ages of the children in the room as this will help the inspector to familiarise themselves with your setting. I call this preparation, 'Helping the inspector to help you'. Taking the inspector on a guided tour of the setting and introducing the whole staff team will ensure that everyone is aware that the inspection is taking place.
The inspection is a two-way process and the inspector should put the staff at ease so that they know the inspector is approachable to discuss any issues and that they can make the inspector aware of any key observations.
The inspector will observe all the children but within that they will 'track' a representative sample of children. This could involve a looked-after child or a funded child to evaluate how effectively the provision is meeting the needs of all children and that no distinct group is disadvantaged. A sample of children's records will be inspected to ensure that progress is effectively evaluated, recorded and planned for and that children are making good progress, given their starting points. The two-year-old progress check is likely to feature within the sample, if applicable.
The inspector will also need to spend some time with the manager. Be sure to pre-empt this and suggest when you are available for the leadership meeting. This is normally a short meeting at the beginning of the inspection followed by a slightly longer one later in the day to gain a greater insight into the quality of your leadership skills and management systems that are in place. The inspector may also need to clarify some of the discussion when observing practice and speaking to staff.
CLARIFY ANY ISSUES
If you refer to previous articles in this series you will find lists of typical questions that the inspector may ask children, parents, staff and manager.
The inspector should have time to pull the evidence together before feeding back the findings and the overall inspection judgement. This will make sure that the evidence is in sync with the judgements.
The four main areas are:
- How well the early years provision supports the needs of all the children
- The well-being of the children
- Leadership and management
- Actions and/or recommendations
- Other relevant main points.
During the feedback, it is essential to take notes for your reference and have available Ofsted's protocol documentation and a copy of the EYFS as these will help you to trace the source of the inspector's judgements. If you are unsure of any of the 'weaknesses' that the inspector states, or need any of the actions/recommendations clarified that have been mentioned, then it would be wise to ask the inspector to point out where the findings are rooted and where the evidence came from to support the findings.
It is essential that any issues that you have with the inspection or the judgements that have been made on your setting are clarified with the inspector before they leave.
Having a strong insight into the role of the inspector, combined with careful preparation, will ensure that you are able to help the inspector to help you throughout the process.
THE INSPECTOR'S VIEW
An inspector of maintained settings says, 'The three Prime areas of learning are now the focus for us when it comes to looking at children's learning and development. Staff need to demonstrate there is a balance of adult-led and child-initiated play, and we want to see a strong understanding of observation and assessment under the EYFS.
'We spend time observing children with their key person, and look at how they are being encouraged to learn independently. A critical part of this is the way staff facilitate free flow between the indoor and outdoor environment. We look closely at Learning Journeys and make sure that the setting meets all the health and safety statutory requirements.
'We try to talk to staff as much as we can but we would never interrupt them when they are interacting with children. We tend to talk to them at the end of the inspection and we also talk to the children, who generally are very engaged with us.'
Laura Henry is managing director of Childcare Consultancy laura@childcareconsult.co.uk
Further reading:
- Conducting Early Years Inspections
- Evaluation schedule for inspections of registered early years provision
- Early years online self-evaluation form (SEF) and guidance for providers delivering the Early Years Foundation Stage
- Reflective Practice and Early Years Professionalism - Linking theory and practice, Jennie Lindon, (Hodder, £23.99)