What is the Common Inspection Framework?
The Common Inspection framework is an attempt to ensure that parents, employers and children are able to compare providers that cater for similar age ranges, against the same judgements.
The three key judgements used to judge the quality and standards in a setting have now been replaced with those from the schools’ and FE and skills inspection frameworks.
The old judgements were ‘how well the early years provision meets the needs of the range of children who attend’, ‘the contribution of the early years provision to children’s well-being’, and ‘the leadership and management of the early years provision’.
The areas of emphasis are now ‘overall effectiveness’, ‘effectiveness of leadership and management’, ‘quality of teaching, learning and assessment’, ‘personal development,’ ‘behaviour and welfare’, and ‘outcomes for children’.
Previously safeguarding was a graded judgement however, this will now come under the leadership heading. Ofsted will also begin to focus on the parents as a source of information, gaining a holistic understanding of the children and the provision.
Ofsted are going to make it more difficult to attain the grade ‘outstanding’ as it will introduce more descriptors for an ‘outstanding’ setting.
The CIF applies, for the first time, to all settings on the early years register, maintained schools and academies, non-association independent schools, and further education and skills providers.
Ofsted chief Michael Wilshaw said, “This is a very different inspection model to what has gone before.The starting assumption of Her Majesty’s Inspectors will be that the school or college is good. This should engender an atmosphere in which honest, challenging, professional dialogue can take place.”
Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Pre-school Learning Alliance, said, ‘Clearly, the success of the new framework will hinge on how it is practically applied by inspectors. It is vital they do not take a one-size-fits-all approach, and ensure that inspection judgements are made with the understanding that that the early years is a unique stage of education.’