OFSTED
The Early Years Directorate at OFSTED (Office for Standards and Education) have responsibility for regulation and inspection of all childcare settings, including the implementation of the national Daycare Standards, which set out the legal requirements for childcare settings, including qualification levels of staff.
They will regularly inspect your provision where they will make a judgement about the overall quality of your care and, where applicable, nursery education. In order to do this, Ofsted inspectors will ask ‘What is it like for a child here?’ To answer this important question they judge how well you meet a series of outcomes for children that are set out in law. These are how you:
- help children to be healthy
- protect them from harm or neglect and help them stay safe
- help them enjoy and achieve
- help them make a positive contribution to your provision and the wider community.
- They also judge how well you organise your childcare to help promote children’s well-being.
Taking account of:
- whether you meet the national standards for the type of care you provide
- the quality of teaching and learning in the Foundation Stage (where you provide nursery education for children aged 3 and 4)
- whether you use good practice as set out in Birth to three matters: a framework to support children in their earliest years (where you care for children under the age of 3