Nursery World - Bringing early years inspections in-house

I’m pleased to be able to write that these are good times for the early years sector.

Our most recently published statistics show that we judged 86 per cent of early years settings to be good or outstanding at their last inspection. That proportion has never been greater. Moreover, providers are strong across the country and quality is improving.

In the last few months, we have been moving towards bringing early years inspections in-house. We announced this move back in March, when it was warmly welcomed by the National Day Nurseries Association and the Pre-School Learning Alliance.

There is now only six months until the training, management and deployment of early years inspections is brought under direct Ofsted control. At present, most early years inspections are carried out by Tribal or Prospects. Bringing early years inspection in-house will mean that Ofsted will have complete oversight of the quality of inspection. Those who undertake early years inspections will do so from next April as either direct employees or inspectors contracted directly to Ofsted.

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