Ofsted News – Issue 99 – March 2021

Our free monthly newsletter

Issue 99 | March 2021

Sections

• All Ofsted
• Schools
• Children’s social care
• Further education and skills
• Early years and childcare

COVID-19 updates
Ofsted: COVID-19 rolling update – This sets out our guidance and information relating to COVID-19 (coronavirus) for schools, early years, children’s social care and further education and skills providers. We are updating it regularly. If you need to see what we’ve added since you last checked it, you can select ‘history‘ on the page and this lists all the updates.

All Ofsted
Speech: Amanda Spielman’s speech at the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) Annual Conference 2021 – A speech by Ofsted’s Chief Inspector at the ASCL Annual Conference 2021.
Press release: Education inspections in the summer term – Ofsted will not return to a full programme of graded inspections until September.
Video: Sean Harford on data – Sean Harford, Ofsted’s National Director, Education, talks about Ofsted inspectors not looking at internal data during inspection.
Video: Sean Harford on curriculum intent – Sean Harford, Ofsted’s National Director, Education, talks about schools not needing to write intent statements.
News story: Area special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) inspections to restart – Revisits to areas with a written statement of action will start from April 2021 and we have published guidance for these visits. Full inspection will resume from June 2021.
Video: Remote education and SEND – A video with Ofsted’s research findings on remote learning and what has worked well for some children and young people with SEND. We have published three supplementary videos on SEND and remote education: what has worked well, learning for the future and bridging the gap. We have also published a discussion pack for leaders and practitioners.
News story: Ofsted to publish new series of subject reviews and reports – From April, Ofsted will publish a series of subject reviews and reports, taking a ‘state of the nation’ look at curriculum quality across primary and secondary schools. We have published a report that sets out the principles underpinning Ofsted’s series of research reviews and subject reports.
Ofsted pen portraits of Her Majesty’s Inspectors (HMIs) – Updated HMI details for the London, South East, East Midlands and North East, Yorkshire and Humber regions.

Schools
Webinar: Inspecting in the current circumstances – exploring the possibilities – spring term 2021 – Ofsted’s East of England regional team deliver a webinar for school leaders.
Initial teacher education (ITE) inspection data summary report (IDSR) guide – This guide gives an overview of the IDSR for ITE providers and inspectors.
State-funded school inspections and outcomes: management information – Published management information as at 28 February 2021.

Children’s social care
Ofsted’s social care blog: The Care Review – a rare, not to be missed opportunity – Yvette Stanley, Ofsted’s National Director for Regulation and Social Care, discusses the Independent Care Review and considers the burning issues faced by Josh MacAlister and his team.
Press release: Ofsted to introduce new Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) inspections – We have updated the main Cafcass inspection framework following a consultation that ran from October to November 2020. We have also added new guidance about the focused visits that we will carry out as part of the new framework from April 2021.
Inspecting local authority children’s services from 2018 – We have updated details of notification periods for inspections and visits. We have also updated guidance on arrangements for publishing inspection reports and letters, concerns and complaints about an inspection and on how our inspections/visits consider the local authority’s arrangements with regional adoption agencies. See ‘Summary of framework changes’ for more information.
Inspecting secure training centres: framework – We have removed guidance on assurance visits as these are no longer taking place. We have revised the secure training centres framework to take the education inspection framework into account and have updated the timeline so there is a shorter report publication timescale. We have also revised the Annex A form.
Social care common inspection framework (SCCIF) – We have updated the SCCIF to include guidance on the changes to Ofsted’s post-inspection processes and complaints handling, including the timeline, that we introduced in September 2020. We have also made minor edits for readability. List of individual frameworks with links as follows:

• children’s homes
• secure children’s homes
• residential family centres
• boarding schools and residential special schools
• residential provision of further education colleges
• adoption support agencies
• independent fostering agencies
• voluntary adoption agencies

Further education and skills
January 2021: further education and skills providers – Updated to reflect changes coming into force from 15 March. Ofsted will carry out new provider monitoring visits to new providers that have not yet received one. We will discontinue progress monitoring visits except in exceptional cases.
Changes to the publication of statistics on further education and skills inspections and outcomes – Response to consultation published.
Further education and skills inspections and outcomes as at 31 August 2020 – We have now published our response to the recent consultation ‘Changes to the publication of statistics on further education and skills inspections and outcomes’. As a result of the consultation, we have made some changes to the provider types and groups. The provider type ‘specialist designated institution’ is now reported as ‘institute for adult learning’ and included in provider group ‘adult communication education providers’ together with the provider type ‘local authority provider’. The inspection outcomes for two prisons were omitted from the data and have now been included. We have updated the main findings and accompanying data, tables and charts with these changes.
Further education and skills inspections and outcomes: management information from September 2020 to August 2021 – Uploaded management information as at 28 February 2021.

Early years and childcare
Apply to register as a nanny – Clarification added to public liability insurance. You can apply to register as a nanny without this, but Ofsted will contact you to make sure you have it before completing your registration. Information also added to clarify that parents cannot enquire about their nanny’s application to register.
Reported coronavirus (COVID-19) notifications by registered early years and childcare settings – Added data for weeks beginning 8, 15 and 22 February and 1 March 2021.
Joiners and leavers in the childcare sector – Published data on joiners and leavers in the childcare sector in February 2021.
Consented addresses for childminders and domestic childcare – Updated consented addresses for childminders and domestic childcare as at 28 February 2021.
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