Education Inspection Framework - 101 Audit Questions

Pennie Akehurst

Description

This resource has been designed to help leaders and managers navigate their way through the changes to the Inspection Framework, effective from September 2019, which sets out how Ofsted intends to inspect early years settings, schools and further education providers. It explains in detail what these changes are and the implication for early years practice, and provides a self-evaluation framework to help leaders and managers feel in control of their inspection process.It will enable practitioners to:- understand what has changed, and effectively implement the changes- become familiar with the terminology used in the new inspection framework.The 101 audit questions are specifically designed to support leaders and managers:- evaluate the provision and identify strengths and areas for development- take appropriate action to address any weaknesses- manage risks and vulnerabilities of practice- evidence and justify aspects of practice.

Sujets

• Informatique
• School

Informations

• Publié par: Andrews UK
• Date de parution: 12 avril 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781912611478
• Langue: English

Extrait

By Pennie Akehurst




Published by Practical Pre-School Books, A Division of MA Education Ltd, St Jude’s Church, Dulwich Road, Herne Hill, London, SE24 0PB.
Tel: [phone] www.practicalpreschoolbooks.com © MA Education Ltd 2019. All photos © MA Education Ltd.
Design: Mary Holmes fonthill creative 01722 717036
2021 digital version converted and distributed by Andrews UK Limited. www.andrewsuk.com
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, without the express prior permission of the copyright holder. Pennie Akehurst asserts the right to be identified as the author of this work.





INTRODUCTION
The Education Inspection Framework (EIF) becomes effective in September 2019, when it formally replaces the Common Inspection Framework. The EIF sets out how Ofsted intends to inspect early years settings, schools and further education providers, and is supported by an inspection handbook for each of the sectors.
This resource has been developed to help leaders and managers navigate their way through the EIF and the Early Years Inspection Handbook.
The content serves two purposes: To draw attention to the most significant changes in the new inspection framework and to highlight the implications for practice. To provide a self-evaluation framework which will help leaders and managers to understand where practice continues to be a strength against the new inspection criteria and where there may be gaps in knowledge and practice.
This guidance is important because…
“Receiving an inadequate inspection outcome under the Department for Education’s current Early Education and Childcare, Statutory Guidance for Local Authorities means that local authorities have a statutory duty to remove early education funding as soon as an inadequate inspection outcome is published (DfE, 2018). The statutory guidance also makes provision for local authorities to remove 2-year-old funding if a setting receives a judgement of requires improvement. There is, therefore, a real imperative for leaders and managers to continue to develop their understanding of pedagogy, practice, business and leadership if provision is to survive.”
(Akehurst, P. 2019)
The sector is at its most vulnerable when there are significant changes to our inspection framework or when new inspection criteria are introduced.
This is because there is always an information void between the publication of the change and its implementation; the sector and those who work to support it need time to study and understand those changes, so it can be a number of weeks before credible guidance and training is available.
That information void is a dangerous time; in the absence of information, social media starts to fill with conjecture and rumours surrounding what Ofsted want to see; even when providers share their direct experiences of inspection under the new regime, everyone reading the comments will derive their own interpretation of what that means for practice and what they need to do to meet Ofsted’s new requirements.
This can lead to misinterpretation and the adoption of policies and practice that doesn’t really make sense or add value to what the setting currently does.
IMPORTANT! This audit tool isn’t about doing things for Ofsted. Ofsted’s function is to check the effectiveness of what we do and to assess whether the judgements made by leaders and managers are accurate, therefore, the questions posed in this framework should help you to analyse what is working well and where practice could be more effective.
The sector is also vulnerable because the framework is new to inspectors which means that there are likely to be inconsistencies in judgements and some misinterpretation of inspection criteria in the early days.
Ofsted are of course cognisant of this fact and despite their best endeavours to guard against this situation, the framework is unlikely to be implemented with consistency from day one. It will take time for this new way of working to embed and for quality assurance processes to become sufficiently refined to ‘catch’ problematic areas. In the meantime, there are likely to be a small number of settings who could potentially receive an ‘incorrect’ inspection judgment which could lead to a loss of local authority funding.
We (leaders, managers and practitioners), therefore, need to understand the changes, unpick what they mean for practice, take action where there may be gaps in practice, and critically, we need to be able to justify why we do what we do and the approach that we have taken.
The content of this audit tool will help leaders and managers to feel that they have a better understanding of the inspection process. It will enable leaders, managers and practitioners to: Understand what has changed, Become familiar with the terminology used in the new inspection framework, Use the 101 audit questions provided to interrogate practice, identifying strengths and areas for development, Take action to address any weaknesses, Justify practice with confidence at the point of inspection.





HOW TO USE THIS RESOURCE
This audit has been broken down into 3 parts to help you to understand the changes, assess your current ability to meet them and to identify any actions needed when practice may not be where you need it to be.
It provides: An overview of the headline changes that have been made to both the Education Inspection Framework and the Early Years Inspection Handbook (which is the criteria that inspectors use to guide their judgements). This will provide you with an understanding of the differences between the old and the new inspection framework. A more in-depth view of the criteria used under each of the key headings in the new inspection framework along with a set of questions that will help you to assess your level of ‘Ofsted readiness’. A risk management framework that will enable you to prioritise the issues of greatest concern and to identify the actions needed to ensure that practice is both effective and consistent.
IMPORTANT! The audit framework doesn’t include the ‘Overall Effectiveness’ key heading because if a setting is meeting all 4 key areas within the inspection framework effectively, this will be reflected in the judgement for Overall Effectiveness.
The audits
Each of the key headings within the inspection framework has been explored to give leaders and managers a deeper understanding of the inspection criteria. Under each key heading you will find: Ofsted’s intention or rationale, Ofsted’s grade descriptors, A series of questions that will help you to review your current systems, processes and practice.
Each question will help you identify your strengths and weaker areas of practice, whilst also helping you to identify and manage inspection risks and vulnerabilities.
Example of an audit question YES NO
1. Does your setting have a clear purpose, vision, mission statement and a set of values or principles that guide what you do and how you do it? And are they reviewed annually to ensure that they remain fit for purpose?
Think about:
Early years settings have strong foundations when they are clear about why they exist (their purpose), where they want to be (vision) and how they are going to get there (mission statement). This is usually supported by a set of principles or values which govern behaviour in the setting. Evidence ASSESSMENT EMERGING DEVELOPING ADEQUATE SECURE
The process

Step 1 – Your initial thoughts
The audit sections have been designed to help you reflect on the effectiveness of practice in depth, but your starting point is what you feel is currently in place. Read each question and respond initially with a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer. This is likely to be a reflection based on what you see and hear on a daily basis. YES NO 1. Does your setting have a clear purpose, vision, mission statement and a set of values or principles that guide what you do and how you do it? And are they reviewed annually to ensure that they remain fit for purpose? Evidence

Step 2 – Provide the supporting evidence for each question
Next, you will need to identify and record your supporting evidence which will either confirm your initial belief or highlight gaps in practice. When reviewing your evidence, you will need to consider whether practice is effective, consistent and embedded, so, what do you have that proves that something is working well and is consistently understood and applied across your setting? The previous inspection framework has taught us that it is not enough to have evidence to say that something is in place, you will also need to be able to demonstrate that it is effective. The following questions may help you to think about the quality of your evidence in more depth.
Does your evidence enable you to say with certainty that this element of practice… Happens with consistency across your staff team, Is the same for all members of staff, Is undertaken by staff independently, without continual reminders from the leadership team, Happens consistently across the year, Happens for all children with consistency, Is effective and of high quality?