EYFS 2012 is here

Following years of consultation and speculation and months of preparation, EYFS 2012 finally came into force on 1st September.

Since the revisions were published in April, settings have had to adapt working practices to meet the changes, “supported” by the Government’s bizarre tactic of producing information and resources in piecemeal fashion over the following months.

At the start of the year, Ofsted also launched a consultation on proposals to revise the regulation and inspection of childcare settings – again to come into force from 1st September 2012. The mid April launch of EYFS 2012 seemed to jump the gun a little – with at least one published revision being part of the consultation on regulation and inspection that only closed on 6th April! What do these changes mean to settings? The Government and Ofsted claim the changes will streamline bureaucracy, make registration and inspection more robust and enable settings to have greater autonomy and flexibility; all with the aim of safeguarding and supporting our children in improved outcomes through promoting high quality care, learning and development. These aims may well be intended, but many take the view that by devolving certain responsibilities to providers, safeguarding is compromised. A very brief summary of changes and concerns includes:  

• Responsibility being transferred from Ofsted to the providers for checking the suitability of the Nominated Person (except for new registrations) and for vetting and checking the suitability of the Manager. Our concern is that providers (whether voluntary managed, trustees, private providers etc.) may not have the skills, experience or time to check suitability, particularly in those settings with a regular change of committee.
• Removing the standard conditions of ages and numbers from registrations, leaving providers free to make their own decisions (subject to compliance around space and staffing). We know that the majority of providers will handle this sensibly, but there are concerns about the odd few that will exploit this revision.
• The claim that Out of School providers will now have clarity about how much of the Learning and Development requirements must be met. There is no clarity and Ofsted have, verbally, admitted that there is actually no change. However, it’s not all bad news. Some revisions are positive:
• The strengthening of Child Protection and Safeguarding requirements: examples of inappropriate behaviour and the use of mobile phones and cameras.
• The new arrangements around “complaints” (now to be called “concerns”) with Ofsted assessing some concerns as minor matters that the provider can deal with. Although there are mixed feelings about Ofsted carrying out full inspections on settings following complaints that are not deemed to be minor matters.
• Confirmation, at last, that providers may choose their own self-evaluation framework, not just Ofsted’s.

BAND has run, and continues to run, EYFS 2012 briefings, designed to help providers assess what action they need to take to ensure their settings meet all the revised requirements.  Feedback from participants has been positive, with many participants saying that our “action plan” style of briefing has been useful in enabling them to take the first steps.

The BAND DS team spent many hours over the summer revising sample policies and procedures to reflect the EYFS 2012 revisions; these documents are available to settings on request.

Information about updated documents is available on the BAND website.  We’ve also used the BAND website, Facebook and Twitter to advertise the publication of documents and resources that have been drip fed by the Government and Ofsted. Of course, change of any kind can be unsettling but hopefully the revisions will lead to improvements in safeguarding and learning and development. By the time this article is published, the new arrangements will have been in force for six weeks. As the first few inspections are published it will be particularly interesting to see how the revised regulation and inspection arrangements work in practice.

This post is the lead article from the Autumn 2012 edition of BAND News which is due to be mailed out week commencing 8th October 2012 - for more information about this blog or the BAND newsletter please contact the office on 01179542128 or admin@bandltd.org.uk.

 

Craft Skills 21st September 2012

Craft Skills 21st September 2012, a set on Flickr.

Photos of the Craft Skills course held last week, thanks to all those involved for making it a great day

BAND Ltd's photostream

BAND Ltd's photostream on Flickr.

OFSTED REGULATION AND INSPECTION CHANGES

As readers may be aware, Ofsted recently held a consultation about proposed changes to their Regulation and Inspection (R&I) of childcare settings.   Ofsted have just held a series of conferences advising local authorities  of the new R&I arrangements which will come into force on 1^st September 2012 at the same time as the introduction of the EYFS 2012 framework.

Space does not permit full details to be published in BANDnews, but a summary of the key points is as follows:

·       Ofsted have to be more rigorous and more robust in their inspections.

·       Ofsted have to present clearer and simpler Inspection Reports.

·       All Welfare & Safeguarding requirements in the EYFS 2012 are now legal guidance.  Failure to meet all Welfare & Safeguarding requirements will result in a setting’s inspection judgement being limited

to Satisfactory.

·       Arrangements for new registrations from 1^st September have changed and Ofsted will signpost potential providers making enquiries about registration to the development team at the relevant local authority (in the case of Bristol this is BAND).

·       From 1^st September Ofsted will no longer carry out Suitable Person interviews or CRB checks on managers/leaders.  It will be the responsibility of the Registered Person (MC, owners, directors etc.) to carry out suitability checks and CRB disclosures for all staff including managers/leaders – although there will still be a requirement to inform Ofsted of a change of manager/leader.

·       From 1^st September Ofsted will carry out a Suitable Person interview on the Nominated Person for new registrations only.  For existing registrations Ofsted will no longer carry out a Suitable Person interview if the Nominated Person changes, although Ofsted will carry out the CRB and vetting checks.

·       When the Nominated Person changes it will be the Registered Person’s responsibility to ensure that any replacement fully understands the requirements of the EYFS 2012.

·       Standard conditions (i.e. numbers and ages of children) will be removed and it will be the responsibility of the Registered Person to ensure that the numbers and ages of children cared for fall within the requirements of EYFS 2012.  Ofsted will check that the requirements for numbers and ages are met during inspection.

·       Complaints and Concerns – for non-routine and non-minor concerns, Ofsted will carry out a full inspection of the setting. 

Full details of the changes to R&I will be made available to providers attending BAND’s EYFS 2012 briefing sessions.  For providers unable to access places at these briefings, details of the revised R&I arrangements will be available from the BAND Development & Support team.