Sector extends olive branch to Ofsted

Abstract

With the parliamentary break serving to take the heat away from the department, the childcare sector has served notice on Ofsted that not only are childcarers, of all professions, worried about the rhetoric coming from the inspectorate, there are huge concerns over the results of inspections, especially from ones that stem from complaints. however, the childcare sector is ever resourceful and rather than just berating Ofsted for, well for many things, there are positive moves afoot to meet Ofsted, and to encourage dialogue to improve the service it offers to better suit children and the businesses that care for them, rather than to simply fulfil government or ministerial targets that do no-one any justice. We should make something from the outset. the childcare sector is supportive of a strong inspectorate. Standards of care and provision need to be upheld and exceeded, and in order to achieve that, there must be an ‘independent’ body of expertise that can monitor and make suggestion, either when events necessitate or on a more regular basis. And for that we need Ofsted. however, in order for this to be successful there needs to be trust, understanding and constant, open dialogue. At present, there seems to be gulf appearing between what Ofsted wants and what the sector wants. Some would argue that there has always been disparity. Much of this comes from the standard of inspector and their level of deep knowledge of the sector, of childcare settings and what quality childcare looks like, especially in childminding settings. Ofsted would counter, rightly so, that it is working to improve the quality of its inspectors. it also needs to look into the quality of its appeals process. What happens if, during your conversation with an inspector, you feel they are not showing relevant levels of knowledge and, therefore, you feel your outcome might not reflect the reality of your provision? Would you feel confident that your concerns would be listened to, and acted upon? truly? it should be said that many inspectors are highly knowledgeable, with many years experience of working in quality settings, but what pressures are they under? there is concern as to whether Ofsted really is an ‘independent’ inspectorate, and given recent pronouncements from the chief inspector regarding early years inspections, and remember, he is a secondary head who is more often than not singing from the same song sheet as Michael Gove, you must wonder whether there is enough real knowledge of child development present to be able to deflect the department’s influence (but then you could say the same of the education department who do not seem to have much knowledge of children or childhood, let alone their learning and development – as long as they sit nice and quietly like they do in France... i digress). there have been a number of news stories recently regarding the inspectorate and the concerns from the sector (see page 10) but there is hope, and that hope comes from the sector’s move to engage Ofsted in dialogue and in meetings, which can only lead to a closer working relationship and greater levels of sector satisfaction. Editor Neil Henty MSc eye@markallengroup.com