Ofsted Big Conversation mtg 7.3.2014 - feedback
Ofsted Big Conversation meeting 7.3.2014 - Manchester - some feedback as promised
We were delighted to be told that changes to the way Ofsted will deal with complaint driven inspections in the future have been made as a direct result of lobbying by members of the OBC! From very soon - guidance is due out shortly - if a complaint is made a compliance officer will visit and check the complaint. They will then go away and 'triage' it - does it need an immediate re-inspection or a quicker than normal re-inspection or can it be ignored...
One of the big things to come out of the meeting on Friday was that all early years providers including childminders are very concerned that the post-inspection complaints process is not fit for purpose. Providers argued very strongly that it needs changing - and that Ofsted must listen to us when we believe that something has gone wrong with the inspection! Ofsted said they are listening...
Meanwhile I have updated members with advice about how to make complaints in my blog here -
Sarah's Blog: Making complaints about childminder inspections.
I asked why childminders have a separate Ofsted director - Lorna Fitzgerald. I said that childminders need reassurance that we are not being side-lined or removed from the early years umbrella when we have worked so hard over the last few years to be included. I was reassured that this is far from the truth - we have our own director to raise our profile and put procedures in place to make sure our needs (as they are different from other early years providers) are championed within Ofsted. We will wait and see...
A colleague asked me to talk about 2 inspectors arriving to inspect a childminder and to raise our concerns that this can be very overwhelming for childminders. Ofsted state that in most instances 2 inspectors = 1 inspector from Prospects or Tribal + 1 inspector from Ofsted who is Quality Assuring the Prospects / Tribal inspector and who will take a back seat unless they notice a concern. We are not to feel intimidated if it happens to us. I am sure we all agree that it is important Ofsted continue to monitor the effectiveness of Prospects / Tribal inspectors…
A colleague asked me to find out what Ofsted's new dual role of regulation and improvement will mean for childminders in the future. The answer is that the improvement role is still in the very early stages of trialling with big providers and they don't have any answers for us yet. The intention is that the improvement role will raise outcomes for providers with seminars and resources available to raise grades…
Providers raised the issue that quality assurance is taking too long and that it is very unfair if an inspection grade is changed during QA when the inspector is the person at fault for not gathering enough evidence to uphold the grade during the inspection. Ofsted said they are listening…
Providers asked for clarity from Ofsted about the meaning of the word ‘significant’ in relation to ‘providers must inform Ofsted about significant events’. In many cases providers ring the Ofsted helpline to inform them about changes and are told that they don’t need to know – in other cases, self-notification leads to overly-harsh inspection outcomes. Ofsted said they will get back to us…
It was a very interesting meeting – it’s good to know we are not alone and all early years providers are facing similar issues. I did feel that Ofsted are listening to us and want to engage in the OBC process. There will be a big regional meeting (Manchester) in May to gather views from a range of providers which we can then take back to Ofsted - and others are scheduled around the country. Please get involved if you can :D
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ofste...623176?fref=ts.
