Here you go ladies a light at the end of a tunnel

[Trouble]

Just received this in an email


Dear Colleagues
New Ofsted Inspection and Regulation from September 2012

There are a number of changes about to take place with regards to Ofsted Inspection and Regulation of Early Years starting in September 2012.

Attached to this letter is an overview of those changes. If you are concerned about any of them, especially if you are expecting an Ofsted Inspection in the autumn term, please do not hesitate to contact your named Adviser for additional support during this period.

One of the changes which will affect everyone is the Self Evaluation Form. The current form is going to be revised to make it easier to complete, if you currently have your SEF on line you need to ensure that you have submitted it. If you do this all the information you currently have in your SEF will be transferred to the new document, if it is not submitted you will have to start again.

Although there will still be a Self Evaluation Form Ofsted will accept your self evaluation in any format you wish to use.


Yours sincerely,

THIS IS THE OTHER BIT


Ofsted Inspection and Regulation from September 2012

New frameworks for registration, inspection and enforcement will be introduced in September 2012 to take account of:
• The Government’s vision for early years
• The revised Early Years Foundation Stage

Bring about improvement through inspection by:
• focusing inspection on children’s personal and emotional development and the progress they make in their learning
• judging how well provision is supporting different groups of children, identifying any particular needs and arranging appropriate intervention
• judging the effectiveness of leadership and management in monitoring the quality of provision and meeting the safeguarding and welfare requirements
• improving information for parents by making inspection reports more user-friendly
• carrying out full inspections where Ofsted receive concerns, so that parents receive a more holistic report on the quality of the provision

Improving registration processes by:
• ensuring that potential providers are ready to deliver provision, including learning and development at the time of registration
• childminder training must be complete before registration –childminders will need proof of accredited LA training.
• Reducing the number of restrictions or actions/conditions of registration
• Suitability interviews for managers will become the responsibility of the employer not Ofsted

Registration transitional arrangements:
• Ofsted will publish new application forms in July and will not accept old application forms received after 1 September
• They will require all childminder applicants who are not registered by 1 September 2012 to complete a local authority approved training course before we register them
• They will check managers up until 31 August 2012 and will continue to make a suitability decision on those already in the process on 1 September 2012.
• Providers must continue to tell Ofsted when managers change on and after 1 September but they will not carry out any checks – that is for providers to do.

The inspection process:
• More time will be spent in the setting - minimum 3 hours for the smallest setting through to 6 hours for a larger setting
• There will be a formal meeting with the owner/manager lasting no longer than 1 hour
• There will be an extended period for observations, tracking children over time and a greater focus on provision for babies and 2 year olds. Joint observations with the manager will be offered but manager doesn’t have to take up the offer
• The formal feedback session will remain
• Report will be a bullet point summary of main issues backed up with detail in the body of the report
• The same 4 grades remain, though Ofsted are going to consult on changing satisfactory to ‘needs improvement’
• There will be revised grade descriptors
• Any setting which is currently satisfactory will be looked at closely as Ofsted are not happy about any setting having a satisfactory judgement more than once
• Inadequate settings will be re-inspected within a year
• Settings will be expected to show the inspector any Local Authority reports
• The Local Authority will be informed of inspection judgements immediately.
• Complaints to Ofsted become ‘concerns’. Minor concerns will be referred back to the setting to deal with and checked at next inspection. All other concerns will trigger a full inspection and not investigated separately as currently happens.