Ofsted. It’s a single word that can bring nervousness into the heart of any nursery worker. But if you are well prepared, the Ofsted visit can be a great learning tool. To help you, we’ve set out everything you need to know, in our essential guide to Ofsted nursery inspections.
What is Ofsted?
Ofsted is short for the Office of Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills. It’s the government body responsible for inspecting, regulating and reporting on educational and early years settings, to ensure that they meet minimum quality and safety standards.
Most early years settings, including nurseries, must register with Ofsted. Every registered institution or individual will have regular Ofsted inspections – for nurseries, this will be at least once every four years. Following your inspection, your nursery will be given a rating: Inadequate, Requires Improvement, Good or Outstanding.
How much notice will I receive for an Ofsted inspection?
Ofsted will call you on or after midday on the working day before the inspection if you are having an inspection following the inspection cycle. However if you are having an inspection which has been raised following a concern reported to Ofsted, you may not receive any notice. Due to this timescale it is beneficial to always be prepared.
Once you’ve had notice of your Ofsted nursery inspection, you will need to share with the parents the details of the forthcoming visit.
What do Ofsted nursery inspections involve?
An Ofsted early years inspection is a visit by an impartial Ofsted inspector. The inspector will observe the children in their usual setting, doing their usual activities. They will talk to both you and the children, to find out more about your nursery and its day-to-day running, and assess your knowledge and implementation of the EYFS. They will usually do the following activities; a learning walk with the Manager to understand the intent and implementation of the settings curriculum, a joint observation, discussions with team and children, discussions with parents, observations of meal times, observations of pick up and handover of children and general observations of children and staff in the setting, a leadership meeting with the Manager and a safeguarding assessment of the teams knowledge and safety measures of the setting.
Here’s just a small selection of questions the Ofsted inspector might ask:
- What qualifications do your staff have?
- Can I check their DBS information?
- How do you support a child when they first start at the nursery?
- What steps do you take to accommodate children with SEND?
- What is your process for recruitment?
- How do you monitor staff performance?
- How would you detect or deal with a safeguarding issue? (They might offer a particular hypothetical situation)
- How do you promote British Values?
- Can you talk me through your fire safety procedure?
Preparing for Ofsted: your essential Ofsted nursery inspection checklist
Although preparing for an Ofsted inspection isn’t in theory something that is possible in a few days, the best way to ensure a smooth and stress-free inspection is to be ready for a visit at any time. The good news is, if you’re a high quality nursery and already following the EYFS, you won’t have anything to worry about.
Use this Ofsted nursery inspection checklist to help tick off elements you need to put in place.
- Recruitment and vetting. Be thorough in your recruitment and vetting process; check all references and qualifications, and carry out DBS checks every time
- An effective induction for new team members, ensuring a robust understanding of safeguarding procedures/policies and child development needs
- Safeguarding. Have effective policies and procedures in place to ensure the safety of the children in your care and to make provision for children with SEND
- Training. It’s really important that everyone in the nursery, from apprentice nursery workers to senior management, is aware of the EYFS and its role in your early years provision. In addition, you can help staff to be aware of their own role and how they make a difference: what do they do well? What positive impact have they made?
- Documentation. Ensure that this is up-to-date and have it ready for inspection at all times. This will include:
- A list of all current staff and their qualifications
- A list of staff with Paediatric First Aid
- A rota with staffing arrangements
- A register of all children enrolled at your setting, and their dates of birth. Ofsted will also want to know which children are present on the day of inspection
- Children with English as an additional language
- Children in receipt of funding and how that funding is used
- DBS records and other vetting checks for employees
- Logs of any complaints received, and documentation on what was done to resolve or respond to the complaint
- Logs of incidents and accidents involving children.
- Logs of any incidents of racism or discrimination
- Policies and procedures: safeguarding, child protection, fire safety, health and safety
- Details of any children on the roll who have a social care or multi-agency plan
Find out more
Here at All About Children, we’re passionate about providing high quality settings for nursery children, and equally passionate about offering a supportive environment to our staff. If you’d like to join our work family, check out the latest vacancies or contact us with your CV.