Ofsted Inspections

INTRO

Ofsted Inspections – Questions Ofsted might ask you and your staff

Want to make sure you and your staff are prepared for your Ofsted inspection?  Then you’ve come to the right place.

In this video, we will be going over the key areas that Ofsted are likely to question you and your staff about.

Helping you to better understand the Ofsted Inspection Process.

But before we get into all of that, welcome to the channel.

INTRO VIDEO

Welcome to the channel Open a Nursery, with myself Curtly Ania.  Where I support you to open run and grow your own childcare business.

If this is your first time here, make sure you subscribe.  I post regular videos all around the topic of childcare.  From the different signs of abuse in children which is a likely question Ofsted will ask you and your staff about during an inspection to how you can manage children’s behaviour using the STAR approach.

There’s a lot here on the channel to support you.

Today we’re going over questions Ofsted might ask you and your staff during an Ofsted Inspection.

I know the thought of an Ofsted inspection fills a lot of us with dread.  One day to judge years of your practice.

Though, with proper preparation you and your staff can go into the inspection with confidence.

Having supported many people with their Ofsted inspections and spoken to some inspectors in preparation for this video I have collated the main questions they ask and the topics they will be covering.  

For your Ofsted inspection they will usually call you the day before to let you know they are coming, letting you know the documents that you need to get ready.

This will happen anytime up until roughly 3 or 4pm the day before, so you get the afternoon and evening to prepare for it.

This can be a very stressful time if you are not ready.

Which is why it’s important to always stay ready.

Ofsted don’t always let you know they are coming too and can inspect without notice, this usually happens if there has been a concern raised regarding your nursery, but not always.

But this just increases the importance of you staying ready.

I have lots of documents to support you to ensure that you are ready available on the website openanursery.co.uk so make sure you check it out after the video. I will post a link to it in the description.

If you prepare using these documents and ensure you are running a high-quality provision, there will be less for you to prepare the day before and you can worry less about it.

During the initial phone call they may ask you some initial questions about your setting, for example how many children you have and information about the staff like their DBS and First aid qualifications.

However, most of this is likely to be covered on the day.

One of the main focuses of the inspection will be on SEND, EYPP and EAL.

With regards to this they will ask you questions around how you attempt to provide an inclusive broad and varied curriculum for all children including your SEND EYPP and EAL children.

How you monitor the progress of these children if you have any and you meet their specific needs and work with other agencies if any.

If you are claiming EYPP funding, they will ask what you have used the money on too.

You will need to provide clear evidence around what you have spent the EYPP money on and the impact this has made.

This can be on specific resources on the child, or the cost of allocating a member of staff to engage with the staff.

Your tracking should show any impact this could have made.

Another key aspect of the inspection and questions they may ask are around safeguarding and the prevent duty.

Safeguarding according to the working together to safeguard children guidance produced in 2023 means:

• Protecting children from maltreatment
• Preventing impairment of children’s health or development
• Ensuring the children grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care
• Taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes

Some example questions they may ask include:

• What are your obligations under Prevent duty?
• What should you be looking out for if a child spends a long time away from the setting?
• How do you report a safeguarding issue?
• Do staff know what to do if the manager is not there?
• What would be some warning signs for you that there was a safeguarding issue with one of your key children?
• How do you safely and securely document safeguarding concerns?
• What is your lockdown procedure?
• How do you work to promote British Values and support children’s personal development and cultural capital?
• What are the different areas of abuse and what signs should you be looking out for?
• What are your fire safety arrangements?

Safeguarding is probably the most significant part of your inspection, and Ofsted will be expecting all staff to have a good understanding of it.

We have a safeguarding quiz available on the website so I will post a link to that in the description too.  You can use it to test your staff’s knowledge.

There are three key principles that underpin safeguarding and that are that:

• Children’s needs should be always be put first
• We should offer support as early as possible
• Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility

How you support staff is also a crucial part of the inspection process.  One part of your Ofsted grade is around effective leadership and management.

Ofsted will determine this by asking both what you do, but also asking staff about your leadership and management.

They may ask about your recruitment process, how you manage supervisions and appraisals and how you monitor staff performance.

They are likely to want to do a joint observation with you too on staff and children to see whether you can observe good practice and offer areas of improvement.

Another key area of the Ofsted inspection will be around child development.   This part of the inspection focuses on how your nursery supports and tracks the development of children according to the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework. Inspectors will assess how children have developed in their learning journey since joining the nursery and how your team helps them in achieving developmental milestones.

Ofsted will observe activities and interactions between staff and children and identify areas that you are doing well and any areas that may need improving.

It is important that all staff have a good knowledge of the 7 areas of learning and how your nurseries curriculum satisfies the EYFS.

Some areas they may discuss with you and your staff include:

• Talking about how an observation you have done or would do on a child

They may ask:

• What are some of the ways that you work on parent partnerships to enhance their child’s learning?
• How are you supporting children when they first start?
• What is your process for planning and what’s next for the children?
• How do you make two-year progress checks?
• How are you supporting the children’s cultural capital?
• How do you evaluate the overall effectiveness of your setting’s EYFS curriculum?

And they may want to discuss with you specific cohorts like what areas of development are you focusing on improving within your nursery based on the group tracking that you may have done.

And finally, you will want to make sure that you have all your documents ready for your inspection.

The main ones are your policies and procedures.  Ofsted may not want to see them, though they will discuss them with you.  If after discussing with you something alerts them, for example you do not answer a question about a policy in a way they would expect, they then may want to see the policy regarding this, to clarify or correct what you have said.

The main policy they will want to see is your safeguarding policy, and may ask you how the policy supports your safeguarding practices.

They will also want to know how you keep parents up to date with the latest policies, what recent risk assessments you have done and your complaints procedures?

Again if you need any policies or procedures or risk assessments you can get some on the website openanursery.co.uk

On there you can get a range of different policies from safeguarding and Senco policy to safer recruitment and biting policy all available from just 59p so check out the link u’ll post in the description to get your copies.

It’s best practice to refresh your memory on all your recent policies, risk assessments and any accidents, incidents or complaints so that you are best prepared in case Ofsted ask you about these.

Especially if any of these have already been reported to Ofsted.

Other documents you might need for Ofsted include:

• Pediatric first-aid certificates
• The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) records and any other documents summarising the checks on, and the vetting and employment arrangements of, all staff working at the setting
• A list of current staff and their qualifications
• A register/list showing the date of birth of all children on roll and routine staffing arrangements
• A list of children present at the setting during the inspection (if not shown on the register)
• All logs that record accidents, exclusions, children taken off roll, and incidents of poor behaviour
• All logs of incidents of discrimination, including racist incidents
• Complaints log and/or evidence of any complaints and their resolutions
• Safeguarding and child protection policies
• Fire-safety arrangements and other statutory policies relating to health and safety
• A list of any referrals made to the local authority designated person for safeguarding, with brief details of the resolutions
• Details of all children who are an open case to social care/children’s services and for whom there is a multi-agency plan

Being fully prepared for your inspection is the most important thing.

Have all the documents you need and ensure that you can answer most of the questions Ofsted are likely to ask.

If there are any documents that you do need make sure to check out the documents available on the website open a nursery.  I’ll put a link on the screen here.

But mostly try not to stress about the inspection.  It’s an opportunity to show off all the good work you do and I’m sure you’ll be fine.

I wish you all the best for it. 

On the screen now is a video Youtube thinks you will find useful, so check it out to continue you your learning.

God Bless.