Nursery World - Call for reform of Ofsted inspections triggered by complaints

The Pre-School Learning Alliance has renewed calls for reform of Ofsted’s inspection system, after figures from a Freedom of Information request show that more early years settings are downgraded following inspections triggered by complaints, than during routine inspections.

This is the second FOI request on inspections data made by the Alliance, after it was forced to re-submit a ‘scaled-down’ request in September.

Ofsted’s figures showed that 29 per cent of complaint-driven early years inspections carried out since September 2012 have led to a downgrade.

A total of 4,758 complaint-driven inspections were carried out between 1 September 2012 and 31 July 2013.

Ofsted’s data shows that 1,383 of these inspections resulted in a downgrade.

This is much higher than the figure of 16 per cent, that is 887 out of 5,506 early years inspections, of settings downgraded following routine inspections carried out during the same time period.

Register now to continue reading

Thank you for visiting Nursery World and making use of our archive of more than 35,000 expert features, subject guides, case studies and policy updates. Why not register today and enjoy the following great benefits:

What's included