Ofsted must focus on improving the quality of early years inspections, says Alliance
13th June 2014
The Pre-school Learning Alliance has called on Ofsted to make improving the quality of early years inspections a priority, following the publication of the inspectorate’s latest annual report and accounts which revealed that two-thirds of all formal complaints made against Ofsted in 2013/2014 were filed by early years providers, up from 48% the previous year.
Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Alliance, said:
“Early years inspections only account for around half of all Ofsted inspections, so the fact that 66% of formal complaints and 72% of internal review requests come from early years providers suggests that there is a fundamental problem with the early years inspection process.
“While we welcome the fact that Ofsted has started to engage with the sector on certain issues, such as the growing prevalence of complaint/concern-driven inspections, it’s clear that there are still many questions to be answered over the quality, fairness and consistency of all early years inspections.
“Our recent sector-wide Early Years Agenda survey revealed that, on a scale of 1 to 10, early years practitioners rate their confidence in Ofsted as 4.7 on average — with a third of respondents giving a rating of three or less. Until these concerns over inspection quality are addressed, confidence in Ofsted will continue to decline.
“While Ofsted has now taken steps to address concerns over the quality of school and further education inspections by bringing them back in-house, this approach has yet to be extended to the early years sector. These figures should send a clear message to Ofsted that it must look to improve the quality of early years inspections as a priority. This is simply not possible under the contractual arrangements and so we continue to urge Ofsted to reconsider to its current stance on this point.”
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Notes for editors
- The Pre-school Learning Alliance is the largest voluntary sector provider of quality affordable childcare and education in England. Through direct provision and its membership of 14,000 nurseries, sessional pre-schools and parent and toddler groups, the Alliance supports over 800,000 children and their families in England. The Alliance also develops and runs family learning programmes, offers information and advice, runs acclaimed training and accreditation programmes and campaigns to influence early years policy and practice.
- For information about the Pre-school Learning Alliance, visit our website: