The Inspection Journey part 3: Welcoming all views

One of the important aspects of SEF is making sure that all stakeholders contribute. This makes sure that everyone's opinions are valued and all can take equal and full responsibility for their views about the good practice in the setting.

Children

Children play an integral part in the evaluation of the setting. After all, how can we possibly begin to determine the quality of our setting if we have not consulted with children?

A common term for this is 'involving and consulting'. Children's views should be central to any changes and developments made within a setting. This is emphasised in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 2009, especially in Article 12: Respect for the views of the child, and Article 13: Freedom of expression. We need to think about how we can involve young children in ways that are appropriate for their age, stage and ability. We need to remember the positive effect on children's brain development when their views and opinions are listened to and respected. There is nothing more rewarding than seeing the delight on a child's face when what they have expressed is reflected in their play opportunities.

We need to value the knowledge and understanding of the child's key person to really listen to children's views and ask relevant, open-ended questions linked to the SEF. When we have reflected and absorbed this information, we must ensure that the details are used effectively. After all, what is the point of making observations if we do not use them to enhance and develop children's play and learning?

We must give children the opportunity to use ICT, such as cameras, tape recorders and video cameras, and help to visually and verbally record their views on any changes to be made. This can be done in a variety of ways - for example, to provide a 'journey of change record'. This will allow for children to record their views and have visual representation of how their ideas have influenced any change within the setting.

Ofsted has produced a 'useful questions for children' document that can be used to complement the above.

Parents

Parents need to know that the SEF is used to evaluate good practice, but at the same time is an important tool to identify areas that need to be improved. Parents should be made aware that any improvements will benefit their children's learning and development. Guidance such as Every Parent Matters provides a useful tool when looking at how to work in a respectful way with parents. We need to be mindful that parents are one of the key stakeholders and the SEF process must be open and transparent.

There are many ways to involve parents. For example:

• Ensure that at first contact with parents, they are made fully aware of the SEF process. Describe to them the reasons behind continuous monitoring and how this will have a positive impact on children's learning and development;

• Devise questionnaires or surveys linking to the areas of the SEF and the impact on their children. Make sure to analyse the comments made on the questionnaires and feedback the information and any areas that the setting needs to improve on;

• Organise a parents' meeting to discuss what the SEF is and how they can contribute to the SEF;

• Create a focus group for parents to go through sections of the SEF;

• Create SEF headings on the parents' notice board for parents to add their comments;

• Change the suggestion box in order for parents to add related SEF comments.

Staff

Staff play an important role in the SEF and they need to be involved in the process.

• Make good use of staff and room meetings to discuss sections of the SEF, and in between meetings give staff one area of the SEF to evaluate for a discussion point at the next meeting. This is useful to get a balanced view of opinions from staff in their different roles;

• Organise an inset/away day to evaluate the SEF as a whole staff team;

• Make sure to discuss SEF in one-to-one meetings;

• Use peer observations to discuss how the EYFS has impacted on practice.

Local Authority

Every local authority works differently and offers a range of support to individual settings. They play a vital role in monitoring and improving the quality of settings in their authority and should be seen as a key stakeholder in improving the outcomes for children.

Any reports or evaluations should be included within your SEF. There are different ways that your local authority achieves this:

• Supporting with Quality Improvement Programmes, using this as a bench mark;

• Assessing practice using audit tools such as Early Childhood Environment Rating Scales (ECERS);

• Monitoring visits to measure the impact of EYFS;

• Providing one-to-one support and training on inspection and SEF issues.

Independent Consultants

Independent consultants are able to provide a fresh pair of eyes and are able to challenge practice and link this to the SEF.

The Children's House nursery in Lincolnshire was able to use an independent consultant to carry out a 'mock up inspection' and organised an inset day looking at the inspection process. Development manager Nathan Archer felt this to be extremely valuable.

Mr Archer says, 'We were very pleased to invite Childcare Consultancy to help us with a mock inspection. The process was undertaken very professionally and feedback was extremely helpful. The mock report was produced under relevant headings with suggestions and links to action. In particular, we reviewed our resources to better reflect diversity and looked at some of our routines to improve our "unique child" approach.'

He adds, 'As a result of the mock inspection, we became confident in our practice and able to "tweak" some systems and our practice accordingly. We were also very fortunate to organise a whole setting training on inspection. This helped staff to recognise their role and identify areas of improvement within our nursery.'

In practice

Liz Cross, EYFS manager, and Terri Trask, area manager (quality) at Surrey County Council, say, 'In July 2008 Surrey Early Years and Childcare Service embarked on a project to conduct an Early Childhood Environment Rating Scales (ECERS) audit in all of its private, voluntary and independent settings. Up to this point, Surrey had used ECERS audits as a means of targeting support for settings who had received a Satisfactory outcome in their Ofsted inspection. We had also started to use the scale as a measure of improvement by auditing settings when they joined the Quality Assurance scheme as a benchmark for making improvements. Settings are also required to build development points from their audit into their ongoing Quality Assurance developments.

'All of the advisory team in Surrey had received auditor training from A+ Education Ltd as well as other key personnel who support settings and staff from each of the Phase One children's centres in the county.

'In order to make the countywide audit achievable throughout its 600 PVI settings, Surrey has instructed A+ Education to conduct the audit. Settings are invited to attend a pre-audit briefing that gives a summary of the scale and how this can be used by the setting for continuous quality improvement. The audit itself is followed up by a visit from the advisory teacher and early education and childcare officer, who will work with setting staff to identify key strengths for the setting and suggest next steps for development. The audit is linked to the Quality and Access funding, so settings are able to order resources that will help them to improve quality for all children in the setting.

'Surrey is planning to use the data from the audit to gain a picture of quality across the authority. It will also help us to target our training programmes around the needs of individual settings and help us to focus on the challenges that different types of provision face.

'Staff from the children's centres have already been able to use the audit to improve quality in specific aspects of their settings and report positively on the use of ECERS as a tool. Once settings are familiar with the scale, Surrey will encourage them to use the tools to self-evaluate their practice and identify areas for improvement. The adviser would then return and look at these areas to measure improvement over time. We then plan to invite A+ to re-audit 20 per cent of settings the following year.'

DOCUMENTS TO COMPLEMENT THE INSPECTION JOURNEY
National Children's Bureau:
www.nationalchildrensbureau.org.uk/qualityimprovement
- Quality Improvement Principles
- The National Quality Improvement Network Companion Guide
National Strategies: www.nationalstrategies.standards.dcsf.gov.uk
- Early years quality improvement support programme (EYQISP)
Ofsted: www.ofsted.gov.uk
- Early Years: Leading to excellence
- Using the early years evaluation schedule
- Conducting early years inspections
- Are you ready for your inspection?
- Early Years self-evaluation form
- Early Years self-evaluation form guidance
- Every Parent Matters
Teachernet: www.teachernet.gov.uk/publications
- Early Years Foundation Stage
Reference: www.unicef.org

By Laura Henry, managing director, and Beth Harris, senior consultant/trainer, Childcare Consultancy. For information contact info@childcareconsult.co.uk or 020 8689 7733