Changes to the early years inspection process
were announced by Ofsted's
Nick Hudson in his blog for Nursery World
Liz Bayram, PACEY's Chief Executive said:
"Whilst the decision to bring inspections for
'requires improvement' nurseries in-house is welcome in theory, we
would question why the same rule has not been applied for other
settings, such as childminders. This announcement highlights a lack
of consistency in assessing and driving quality improvement across
early years settings as a whole. We would like to see Ofsted
reintroduce in-house inspections for all early years providers so
that there is a consistent approach to improving standards in the
sector.
We are extremely concerned that Ofsted has
decided to extend the post-registration inspection timeframe to 30
months after a setting has opened. A provider's first inspection
must be carried out sooner rather than later in order for any
problems to be addressed quickly. Waiting two and a half years
until a first inspection is carried out is far too long."