Ofsted 6-year inspection window - is it working?

Ofsted, the UK's education regulator, is responsible for inspecting and evaluating the quality of Early Years settings. In the past, Ofsted had a specific inspection cycle, where reinspections of early years providers were supposed to happen within a four-year cycle. However, Covid-19 disrupted inspections throughout 2020, and in 2021 and The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families recommended replacing the inspection cycle with a six-year window starting on May 4, 2021. In this article, we will examine the impact of the new inspection window on Early Years settings.

Data

In this article we review two datasets. The first is from the Common Inspection Framework (CIF) period between September 2015 and August 2019 (Pre-covid). At this time there was a four-year inspection cycle in place. The second dataset is from May 2021 to February 2023 where there was a 6-year-window for inspections introduced.

Analysis

Our data (below) shows that during the CIF period, most ‘inadequate’ reinspections were carried out on time with only 7% missing their target. Compared to the 6-year-window you can see there has been a dramatic rise to 31% of ‘inadequate’ reinspections missing their target.

Data from the CIF period showed that 93% of Good and Outstanding inspections were completed within a six-year period, which could explain why six years was chosen as the new window.

Ofsted graph 1 — Figure 1 - Common Inspection Framework Period (September 2015 - August 2019)

Ofsted graph 2 — Figure 2 - Period since introduction of 6 year inspection window (May 2021 - February 2023)

Conversely the percentage of ‘Good’ reinspections which are on-target has risen from 70% to 97%.

	CIF (4-year-cycle)		6-year-window
	On Target	Missed Target	On Target	Missed Target
Inadequate	93%	7%	69%	31%
Requires Improvement	73%	27%	59%	41%
Good	70%	30%	97%	3%
Outstanding	83%	17%	52%	48%
Totals	80%	20%	70%	30%

Inspection numbers dropping

Since the implementation of the new inspection window, there has been a drop in the number of inspections carried out per day. During the CIF period, we had a total of 23.1 inspections per day compared to only 11.6 inspections per day since May 2021.

Conclusion

The new six-year window for inspections may have been implemented to reduce the overflow of inspections that were not completed within the previous four-year cycle. However, it's clear that the new approach has its challenges, with a decrease in inspections carried out per day and a higher percentage of inspections not completed within the six-year window. Ofsted will need to monitor this situation carefully to ensure that Early Years settings receive adequate and timely inspections.

The data presented in this article has been gathered using publicly available sources and information provided by Ofsted. We have made every effort to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the data presented. However, as with any statistical analysis, there is a margin of error that should be taken into account when interpreting the results. Additionally, the conclusions drawn from this data are the opinion of the author and are based on the information available at the time of writing. We cannot guarantee that these conclusions will hold true in the future or in other contexts. Finally, readers should be aware that the data presented in this article is subject to change as new information becomes available. Percentages have been rounded.