Hello I was posting on another thread about inspectors turning up at 7am, and I must admit it was a scary anecdote, so I emailed ofsted for some clarification, they very promptly replied;

"Inspections of childminders are carried out by inspection service providers on behalf of Ofsted; these are Tribal or Prospects, depending on where you live. Inspections can be at no notice; however childminders usually receive a call no more than five days before the inspection to check which days they are operating and whether there are children on roll and present. Inspections can be conducted at any time that a provider operates. You may find the guidance document Conducting early years inspections useful. However if an inspection is as a result of a concern made to Ofsted inspections can be at no notice. The document Inspection guidance for inspecting provision of the early years register following the risk assessment process, provides information on the process when a risk assessment is carried out prior to an inspection."

I also asked them what would happen if they appeared and for whatever reason we had no children that day. They said;

" If an inspector arrives to conduct an inspection then it would be normal practice for that inspection to be conducted on that day. An inspector may take advice from a manager or the duty desk. It would be unusual for an inspector not to conduct the inspection. However in line with Conducting early years inspections, when the inspector contacts a childminder to discuss if they are operating they will check if there are no children on roll or present. If that is the case then usually the inspection will be rescheduled unless there are good reasons why it must go ahead; for example, because it is close to the end of the inspection cycle. You may find useful the document Guidance for inspecting childminders and childcare providers with no children on roll or no children present at the time of the inspections. There is also information in the document Inspection guidance for inspecting provision of the early years register following the risk assessment process, regarding inspections when there are no children on roll."

They also said that they NEVER do on the spot inspections, without a previous complaint made about that specific provider. So the discussion happening on the other thread about inspectors conducting inspections on all CM in a three mile radius because of a complaint about ratios, this would absolutely not happen. Also before conducting inspections, they will either call, or check your most recent SEF to see what times you have said you operate. They will never show in outside of your stated working hours. So if they turn up at 7am, and you said you start at 6.30, no complaining!

I found it useful for some clarification. This forum should only be used for factual discussions, it's not helpful to talk about experiences where some of the facts are unknown, it just makes us unnecessarily fearful!
X

Hello I was posting on another thread about inspectors turning up at 7am, and I must admit it was a scary anecdote, so I emailed ofsted for some clarification, they very promptly replied;

"Inspections of childminders are carried out by inspection service providers on behalf of Ofsted; these are Tribal or Prospects, depending on where you live. Inspections can be at no notice; however childminders usually receive a call no more than five days before the inspection to check which days they are operating and whether there are children on roll and present. Inspections can be conducted at any time that a provider operates. You may find the guidance document Conducting early years inspections useful. However if an inspection is as a result of a concern made to Ofsted inspections can be at no notice. The document Inspection guidance for inspecting provision of the early years register following the risk assessment process, provides information on the process when a risk assessment is carried out prior to an inspection."

I also asked them what would happen if they appeared and for whatever reason we had no children that day. They said;

" If an inspector arrives to conduct an inspection then it would be normal practice for that inspection to be conducted on that day. An inspector may take advice from a manager or the duty desk. It would be unusual for an inspector not to conduct the inspection. However in line with Conducting early years inspections, when the inspector contacts a childminder to discuss if they are operating they will check if there are no children on roll or present. If that is the case then usually the inspection will be rescheduled unless there are good reasons why it must go ahead; for example, because it is close to the end of the inspection cycle. You may find useful the document Guidance for inspecting childminders and childcare providers with no children on roll or no children present at the time of the inspections. There is also information in the document Inspection guidance for inspecting provision of the early years register following the risk assessment process, regarding inspections when there are no children on roll."

They also said that they NEVER do on the spot inspections, without a previous complaint made about that specific provider. So the discussion happening on the other thread about inspectors conducting inspections on all CM in a three mile radius because of a complaint about ratios, this would absolutely not happen. Also before conducting inspections, they will either call, or check your most recent SEF to see what times you have said you operate. They will never show in outside of your stated working hours. So if they turn up at 7am, and you said you start at 6.30, no complaining!

I found it useful for some clarification. This forum should only be used for factual discussions, it's not helpful to talk about experiences where some of the facts are unknown, it just makes us unnecessarily fearful!
X

They also said that these are the standard rules, if an inspector from either Tribal or Prospects does not behave in the correct way, I.e turns up for a routine inspection before your open hours, then please report. However it is normal practice to call ahead of routine inspections, and CM have a duty to tell the truth about opening hours and amount of children that day.

Inspections can be at no notice; however childminders usually receive a call no more than five days before the inspection to check which days they are operating and whether there are children on roll and present. Inspections can be conducted at any time that a provider operates.

In fairness to the lady in question whose post on fb prompted this. The above comment does confirm that they can an will do inspections with no notice.

I do believe the inspector on the day did come with excuses her watch, spot checks to almost justify her turning up.

Thank you for clarifying this :thumbsup:

Inspections can be at no notice; however childminders usually receive a call no more than five days before the inspection to check which days they are operating and whether there are children on roll and present. Inspections can be conducted at any time that a provider operates. In fairness to the lady in question whose post on fb prompted this. The above comment does confirm that they can an will do inspections with no notice. I do believe the inspector on the day did come with excuses her watch, spot checks to almost justify her turning up. Thank you for clarifying this :thumbsup:

It's true what your saying, I took that to mean that it's highly unlikely that an inspector will turn up unannounced for a routine inspection, however, she wouldn't commit to saying that they absolutely never turn up prior to calling...

I do feel a little more calm though, that thread did make me panic about find an inspector on my doorstep in the morning! Haha x

That is interesting, thank you. With regard to the times an inspector may arrive I guess the problem is that many cm's working hours and advertised opening hours are different. It depends where they look for the info. EG. on the FIS website my opening hours are shown as 8am-5pm, but on a Monday I finish at 3pm due to the times the children go home. Some cms might advertise their hours as 6.30am-6.30pm, but not all of them actually work that long, or may be closed for holiday etc. Maybe inspectors need to differentiate between nurseries, who do have children there for the whole of their opening hours and childminders, who may not be working, even if they are willing to operate between those hours.


I still very much get the impression that Ofsted, Prospects and Tribal really don't communicate much as neither seems fully aware of what the other is doing. Maybe it would be interesting to send your email to Prospects and Tribal to see what their take on it is? Ofsted still pretty much deny routine inspections happen without notice, but will Prospects & Tribal be able to confirm the same? Several inspectors are reported as having said that unannounced routine inspections are becoming more usual, so it would be interesting to know where the directive has come from.

Ofsted has produced some good guidance on inspections, but how many inspectors have read them :rolleyes:

I still very much get the impression that Ofsted, Prospects and Tribal really don't communicate much as neither seems fully aware of what the other is doing. Maybe it would be interesting to send your email to Prospects and Tribal to see what their take on it is?

That's a very good point, I may do that this evening!! Also interesting about opening times, inspectors tend to come in the morning and stay till lunch so you may be ok with early finish on an afternoon...

I definitely feel more reassured though :)

Could people bit update their opening times online, for instance I have recently updated my opening timed on my local directory as opening 9-5.30, I actually start at eight with a current mindee most days and on a wednesday work until eight. But with new potential clients these I am only available between 9-5.30 as this is what I would like to scale my working day to in the future. Is it ok to advertise shorter opening hours than you already provide for current mindees? I only did this because I was getting enquiries asking me to have children til 7pm every night for instance, and when I replied with a no, was met with 'well why do you advertise those times then?', so I changed it......

Could people bit update their opening times online, for instance I have recently updated my opening timed on my local directory as opening 9-5.30, I actually start at eight with a current mindee most days and on a wednesday work until eight. But with new potential clients these I am only available between 9-5.30 as this is what I would like to scale my working day to in the future. Is it ok to advertise shorter opening hours than you already provide for current mindees? I only did this because I was getting enquiries asking me to have children til 7pm every night for instance, and when I replied with a no, was met with 'well why do you advertise those times then?', so I changed it......

I advertise the times that I am happy to be available for work.
I may advertise as open from 6.30am - 6.30pm, as that gives parents the information that these are my earliest and latest times, however they may want 8-6.
So if I only had that 1 parent, their child would arrive at 8am even though my published availability is 6.30. So if Ofsted said for example they were coming at 6.30 as that's my advertised start time - Yes it is, but the child I had would not arrive until 8am.
If I wanted all new children to not come until 8am, then that's what I would advertise.

That's a very good point, I may do that this evening!! Also interesting about opening times, inspectors tend to come in the morning and stay till lunch so you may be ok with early finish on an afternoon...

I definitely feel more reassured though :)

Yes, I feel more reassured. I don't work on a Friday, but was worried about the possibility of them turning up then. My FIS details say I'm closed on a Friday, so hopefully they wouldn't come then. It makes sense to think they go from our advertised opening times, so I guess it makes sense to keep them regularly updated :thumbsup: