Many early years practitioners are worried about whether they are meeting the new national standards for their type of childcare and how these affect inspections. To face these changes with confidence, it is important to feel prepared before the letter announcing your inspection arrives.
The purpose of the annual inspection is to check whether you continue to be qualified to provide childminding or daycare under the national standards. It also provides information for parents about the quality of care and reassures them that their children are in a safe environment.
How will I be told ?
You will receive a letter from your Ofsted regional centre notifying you of the month, but not the date and time, of your forthcoming inspection. The letter will also include:
* 'Information for providers', which will answer many of your queries about how the inspection will be carried out.
* A 'diary sheet' so that you can say if there are times when you will not be available, for example, during a nursery outing.
* An 'update form' to complete so that your inspector will have the most up-to-date information about the childcare that you offer.
* A questionnaire for parents. This can be returned to you for sharing with the inspector, or sent by parents to the Ofsted regional centre.
How should I prepare?
You will feel less anxious about your forthcoming inspection if you are well prepared. As the purpose of the inspection is to check whether you meet the 14 national standards, begin by familiarising yourself with them. They are not as daunting as they seem, and useful guidance has been produced to help you before your inspection (see information, right). You should find that you are meeting most of the requirements already.
* Make an attractive source of evidence for yourselves and the inspector. Buy a large ring binder, 14 brightly coloured dividers and some plastic document envelopes. Look at the national standards, and on the front of each divider type in large letters the number of the standard and the criteria it covers, as written on the contents page in the booklet. Laminate the dividers if possible.
* Work through the standards one by one using the booklet and the guidance together. Make particular reference to the information about 'What the inspector looks for' within the guidance for each standard.
* Make a list for each standard with the following three headings: 'See', 'Discuss', and 'Observe'. Think of the inspection as a chance for the inspector to 'see' relevant documents, 'discuss' how you meet each standard, and 'observe' how the standards are met in practice.
See
As you work through each standard, make a list of documents the inspector needs to see. These are listed in the guidance. For example, for sessional care you will need to have records about staff, volunteers and students (Standard 1, Suitable Person).
The requirement to produce an Operational Plan, mentioned under requirements for Standard 2, worries many practitioners. However, it is reassuring to realise that this can consist of a collection of different policies and procedures which together explain how the setting runs and how resources are used to meet the needs of the children.
Gather documents for each standard and put them into the plastic wallets in the relevant sections of your file. You may need more than one file according to the number of documents. Make a note of any new documents you need to produce and consider whether any existing documents should be updated or reviewed.
Discuss
Work through the standards and guidance again and consider what you might need to clarify by discussion with the inspector to explain how you meet the standards in your setting.
For example, if you provide sessional care, you may be asked about management of staff, including such aspects as supervision and staff meetings, whereas if you are a childminder you might be asked about how space and resources are organised to meet the children's needs (Standard 2, Organisation).
You may have documents that outline these procedures, but make sure you are able to explain how your systems work in practice. Identify aspects you are less sure about and where you need to develop your knowledge.
Observe
Finally, consider what the inspector will need to observe in practice rather than on paper - for example, how your resources are organised and labelled to ensure that children have easy access to them (Standard 3, Care, Learning and Play). Look at your facilities and watch the children playing so that you can check whether this is what is actually happening. Identify any areas that you will need to develop further.
At the end of this process you should have covered all 14 standards and have a strong file of evidence, feel confident to talk about your systems and know that you are meeting the needs of your children in practice.
Planning for action
* Once you have gathered together what the inspector will be able to see, discuss and observe, refer to your notes and begin to write out an action plan identifying what still needs to be done within each of the 14 standards.
* Put these in order of priority and start working on the most important areas immediately. You may be able to update some documents or reorganise some of your resources quite quickly. You should be able to demonstrate through your action plan that you are aware of any shortcomings and how you plan to address them.
The inspection
Time The time an inspection takes will vary according to the type of childcare you provide. The annual inspection for a childminder will normally take two hours, while a daycare inspection could take a full day. There will usually be one inspector, but more than one inspector might attend very large premises to reduce the inspection time.
Inspector's role The inspector will be observing the children and their relationship with childcarers. There will be time to talk to children, staff and parents and to look at documents. Staff will be asked questions about how they are meeting standards.
Outcomes Having prepared well beforehand, you will be ready to respond to questions about how you are meeting the national standards. The important thing to remember is that the inspection is 'outcome' based, rather than simply one in which facts are gathered. If you think of each of the 14 national standards as an 'outcome', you will confidently be able to show the inspector how you are achieving each of these outcomes. You can do this in many different ways and it is important to remember that the inspector will not be following any particular approach. This means that you can develop your provision in your own way, as long as you meet the standards.
Feedback Before leaving, the inspector will give you oral feedback in which you will be told of your strengths and any action you need to take if you do not fully meet the national standards. You can invite one or two staff members to attend. The inspector will explain clearly what needs to be undertaken as either an 'action' or a 'condition'. An 'action' states what you have to do and the time in which you should do it, and you will be notified of this in the inspection report and a separate letter. A 'condition', such as making sure required documentation is in place, is more serious. You will be notified of this on your report and on your registration certificate. Again you will be given a time limit to put this into place. You will be told what the actions or conditions are, but not how to put into these into place.
Written report After the inspection you will receive a written report within six weeks and will be given an opportunity to correct any factual errors before the report is published.
Three-and four-year-olds
Many practitioners think that inspection for funded three-and four-year-olds automatically takes place at every inspection. You will only be inspected for nursery education for funded three-and four-year-old provision alongside your annual inspection when your inspection date is due. This is called a 'combined inspection'. NW
Jean Evans is an early years consultant and former Ofsted inspector
Further information
* National Standards for childminding and daycare are available from DfES Publications, tel: 0845 6022260. The reference numbers are:
DfEE 0486/2001 for childminding
DfEE 0487/2001 for creches
DfEE 0488/2001 for full daycare
DfEE 0489/2001 for out-of-school care
DfEE 0490/2001 for sessional care
* Guidance to the National Standards is available from Ofsted Publications Centre, tel: 07002 637 833