OfstedNews

Our free monthly newsletter

Issue 97 | January 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.
COVID-19 briefing notes – We have published what we found on our visits to education and social care providers as part of our phased return to routine inspection. These are the recent publications in this series:

• COVID-19 series: briefing on schools, November 2020 – Evidence from interim visits to 297 schools between 2 and 24 November 2020.
• COVID-19 series: briefing on further education and skills, November 2020 – Evidence from interim visits to further education and skills providers between 19 October and 4 December.
• COVID-19 series: briefing on early years, November 2020 – Evidence from research interviews with 739 early years providers between 5 October and 11 December.
• COVID-19 series: briefing on local areas’ SEND provision, November 2020 – Evidence from education, health and social care leaders and practitioners between 1 September and 4 December 2020.
• COVID-19 series: briefing on children’s social care, November 2020 – Evidence from assurance visits to secure children’s homes and independent fostering agencies between 1 September and 4 December.
• HMCI commentary: findings from visits in November – Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector (HMCI), Amanda Spielman, discusses what we found in our November visits to education and children’s social care providers.
• Press release: COVID-19 isolation having detrimental impact on children’s education and welfare, particularly the most vulnerable – Ofsted publishes the third and final set of reports looking at the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on children and young people.

All Ofsted
Annual Report 2019/20: Ofsted warns of risk to children ‘out of sight’ during pandemic – Ofsted’s HMCI has warned that the invisibility of vulnerable children as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic should be a matter of national concern. Read the Annual Report and the transcript of Amanda’s speech at the launch event. We have also published the social care data and stuck schools data to accompany this year’s Annual Report.
Ofsted: phased return to inspections – Ofsted’s return to inspection in 2021 will happen in phases, with no graded inspections for education or social care providers planned before the summer term. Our follow-up news story confirmed that planned inspection activity will be carried out remotely until after the February half term. We have also updated our deferral policy to reflect our inspection activity from January 2021 onwards. We have published an equality, diversity and inclusion statement, which details how Ofsted’s return to routine inspection activity enables us to fulfil the requirements of the Equality Act 2010.
Press release: Ofsted publishes short guide to what works well in remote education – Ofsted has published some advice to help school and college leaders and teachers develop their remote education offer. You can read the remote learning short guide online.
Press release: Ofsted research finds pupil motivation around remote education is a significant concern for parents and school leaders – A new report from Ofsted has found that pupils’ engagement and motivation remain a significant challenge for schools providing remote education. You can read the full remote learning research report online.
Ofsted’s equality objectives 2016 to 2020 – Added the equality objectives progress review for 2019 to 2020.
Ofsted pen portraits of Her Majesty’s Inspectors (HMI) – Updated information for the South West.

Schools
January 2021: maintained schools and academies – An operational note for inspectors carrying out inspections in state-funded schools from January 2021.
January 2021: non-association independent schools – An operational note for inspectors carrying out inspections of non-association independent schools from January 2021.
Risk assessment methodology: initial teacher education (ITE) – The risk assessment process that Ofsted uses to assist in scheduling inspections of ITE partnerships.
ITE inspection framework and handbook – Added a note confirming that Ofsted plans to carry out full graded ITE inspections from April 2021.
Inspectorates of British schools overseas: annual Ofsted report letters – Due to COVID-19, it was not possible for Ofsted to complete the annual commission for quality assuring the work of the inspectorates of British schools overseas in 2019/20. Therefore, the corresponding letter will not be published as usual this year.
School inspection data summary report (IDSR) guide – Guidance amended to reflect the latest version of the IDSR, including example reports.
Pre-registration advice notes for free schools, studio schools and university technical colleges 2020 – Advice notes from pre-registration inspections of proposed free schools, studio schools and university technical colleges that Ofsted carried out in 2020 at the request of the Secretary of State for Education.
Data on COVID-19 visits: schools – Published transparency data to 4 December 2020.
State-funded school inspections and outcomes: management information – Published management information as at 30 November 2020 and 31 December 2020. Also, release schedule has been updated to show publication dates up until June 2021.
Non-association independent schools inspections and outcomes: management information – Announcement that management information will not be published in January 2021.

Children’s social care
Press release: Joint working improving children’s access to mental health services – A new joint report shows that more children with mental health needs are getting the right support at the right time. You can read the full joint report from Ofsted, Care Quality Commission (CQC), Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, Fire & Rescue Services and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation online.
Press release: Inspectorates – urgent action needed at Rainsbrook – Ofsted, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) and CQC have issued an urgent notification for Rainsbrook Secure Training Centre (STC). You can read the full letter from Amanda Spielman to the Secretary of State for Justice setting out the intention to invoke the urgent notification process for Rainsbrook STC, along with findings from recent visits, online.
Ofsted’s social care blog: Ofsted ratings and ‘hard to place’ children – Yvette Stanley, Ofsted’s National Director for Regulation and Social Care, discusses how the best providers support ‘hard to place’ children and children admitted in emergencies.
Social care questionnaires 2020: what children and young people told Ofsted – Ofsted uses questionnaires to capture views about social care settings, including children’s homes, boarding schools and living with foster carers and adopters.
Inspecting local authority children’s services (ILACS) from 2018 – Changes made to the guidance on inspecting ILACS focused visits during the restart of routine inspection (see summary of changes for more information).
Future inspection of Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) from 2021 – The publication date of the Cafcass consultation outcome and the new inspection framework has been revised from February 2021 to March 2021.
Fostering in England 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019 – The underlying data has been updated to include the data for two local authority trusts that had previously been omitted.
Local authority and children’s homes in England inspections and outcomes – autumn 2020 – Dataset updated to include some inspection outcomes that had been left out incorrectly.

Further education and skills
January 2021: further education and skills providers – An operational note for inspectors carrying out inspection activity of further education and skills providers from January 2021.
Ofsted to carry out thematic survey on T levels – Ofsted will carry out a survey to report on the implementation of T levels and the T-level transition programme in their first two years of operation.
16 to 19: IDSR guide – Guidance updated to include new report information section, destinations data and inclusion of 2019 retention and completion and attainment measures.
Further education and skills inspections and outcomes: management information from September 2020 to August 2021 – Uploaded management information as at 30 November 2020 and 31 December 2020.

Early years and childcare
Assurance inspections 2021: registered early years providers – An operational note for inspectors carrying out assurance inspections of registered early years providers.
Childcare providers: telling Ofsted about significant events – From the end of January 2021, childminders, nurseries and all other childcare providers must use an online notification form to tell us about significant events.
Publication of statistics on childcare providers and inspections – A consultation seeking your views on proposed changes to our statistical release on childcare providers and inspections.
Guidance on writing complaint and compliance action outcome summaries – ‘Principles for publishing an outcome summary’ section updated to reflect that, as part of our focused additional regulatory ‘consider at next inspection’ (CANI) work during COVID-19, we will publish outcome summaries in cases where we raise actions for the provider to take to meet requirements.
Reported COVID-19 notifications by registered early years and childcare settings – Added data for weeks beginning 16 November 2020, 23 November 2020, 30 November 2020, 7 December 2020, 14 December 2020, 21 December 2020, 28 December 2020 and 4 January 2021.
Consented addresses for childminders and domestic childcare – Updated consented addresses for childminders and domestic childcare as at 30 November 2020 and 31 December 2020.
Joiners and leavers in the childcare sector – Published data on joiners and leavers in the childcare sector in November 2020 and December 2020. Also, the release end date has been updated to July 2021.
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