Ofsted has also published today (22 December) the new Early years and childcare registration handbook, which replaces a raft of separate guidance, and comes into force on 1 January 2016.
Latest figures published by Ofsted show that 3,590 inspections have been carried out of providers on the early years register, since the new Common Inspection Framework (CIF) was brought in on 1 September.
They show that 2,437 childminders were inspected between 1 September and 31 October, and of these 89 per cent were good and outstanding.
This is a higher proportion of good and outstanding grades than that of the most recent inspections for all childminders, which stands at 83 per cent.
Meanwhile, between 1 September and 31 October, inspections were carried out at 1,153 nurseries and pre-schools, (childcare on non-domestic premises), and of these 81 per cent were good or outstanding, compared to 87 per cent for the most recent inspections of these providers.
Although total good and outstanding grades for all provision were 86 per cent for the two months, compared to 85 per cent for all most recent inspections, the percentage of inadequate gradings is higher at 3 per cent for childminders and 6 per cent for nurseries, compared to 1 per cent for all most recent inspections.
Although, Ofsted does not consider these figures as ‘official statitsics’, classifying them as management information, they nonetheless give an indication of early years provider outcomes under the new inspections framework.
Writing on Nursery World online, Gill Jones, Ofsted early education deputy director, says, ‘It is early days, but late last week we published figures about the outcomes of almost 3,500 inspections under the new way of inspecting early years settings. These figures do not indicate a significant change in our judgements since we implemented the common inspection framework on 1 September.
‘We will have to wait until March 2016 to see official statistics about how early years providers have fared under the new common inspection framework. At that point we will publish statistics about inspection outcomes of childcare providers as of 31 December 2015.
‘I have been heartened by feedback from my team and from early years providers in the last few months.’
- Read Gill Jones’ blog.
- Download the new handbook
