To think that Ofsted are toughening up nursery inspections?

[bd789]

Our nursery has just had its registration suspended for 6 weeks because of Ofsted concerns. It is incredibly stressful trying to work out how to cobble together childcare not knowing when it will reopen.
Another nursery in our town, one with an excellent reputation, unexpectedly got a poor rating recently.
I've heard anecdotally from other people around the country of more nurseries being closed/suspended because of Ofsted.
Is Ofsted taking a tougher line? I don't think that my kids nursery has ever been unsafe for them, but we've not had any direct communication from Ofsted to explain why they took this drastic step, so we're going entirely on what the nursery is telling us.
(Don't want to give too many details as it would be outing)

You should be able to see the ofstead report online?

Or ask to see it.

I think they are being tough now - perhaps they were more relaxed during covid? But if a nursery has been suspended then it's pretty serious.

They are taking a very hard line on safeguarding policy knowledge at the moment. A nursery local to me that has always had a good rep was in the same situation before Christmas. Problem is nurseries can't provide funded hours if they're rated any less than 'good' so they need to be at that level minimum really for people to even consider them

Oh no! Is that right? Tense times!

The report that's online is a very top level one. We were told they'd write to parents with more detail but have seen nothing yet.

That makes sense. Onus is then on nursery management to make sure their staff are all trained up

I work in early years. In my opinion it's doomed. Decent staff cannot be found because the pay and conditions are so bad. People would rather work at aldi, I'm considering it. Ofsted get tougher and it's unrealistic expectations. In most jobs you might get an appraisal for example or if you're boss sees you do something they don't agree with, you'll just get bit of a talking to. In our job you get inspected (not a helpful you need to change this kind of way), and then a damming report wrote about about you and published to everyone, sometimes goes to the media. No wonder staff mental health is at an all time low. Settings are scraping the barrel for staff who are simply not suitable, just to keep their ratios correct. Then parents post all over social media complaining that little Johnny only eats salmon and nursery didn't provide it, so they must be crap! You get the gist...

It's such a low paid / long hours / difficult job , that they can't recruit and maintain the right staff .

The nursery we use went from good to 'needs improvement' recently. The manager was devastated and so were the other staff. I felt so sorry for them as they work so hard and are lovely to the children.

I've just been offered the 30hr fee reduction as she's turning 3 so it doesn't seem to make a difference in that regard.

@Hygeelady our nursery has definitely been struggling like every other setting to recruit and retain staff. We adore our kids key workers, they're wonderful. I think it's the management which has really failed.

I've read 2 nursery inspections recently and thought the opposite. As long as safeguarding is okay, the other stuff doesn't seem to matter too much. The two nurseries are both decidedly mediocre, with staff trying their best but who ultimately are very young and inexperienced. Having been through a primary school inspection recently, I don't think they're on remotely the same level.

Ofsted have a very strict yet reachable grading system where they need to make sure all childminders, nurseries & schools are providing the safest care for all the children there.
EYFS settings (all under 5’s) have has their criteria changed where Ofsted focus a lot on safeguarding, staff knowledge of the children & how three children are actually developing. However every setting knows this and has the ability to enforce it & ensure the criteria is being met.
If the nursery doesn’t tick the box in any area then they will ultimately have a negative result of some kind. Some are worse than others - safeguarding being a biggy!
It could be something as simple as 1 staff member not answering a question with the correct answer (thus deeming the nursery as not providing adequate training) or missing paperwork, or something Ofsted had witnessed whilst there, non-accessible emergency exits etc, or that some staff had no DBS or outdated DBS, the manager hadn’t updated their address or marital status with Ofsted … etc. Soooo many options for safeguarding!
The fact it has 6 weeks to change things means there is some hope it will re-open
The Ofsted report won’t be available to view for 4-6 weeks, the nursery won’t be allowed to show you their copy (when they get it) until Ofsted release it on their website - this is because it can change at any point until it’s officially been released. They aren’t even supposed to discuss it with a parent or anyone outside of the nursery setting - part of Ofsted’s rules!
Hopefully your nursery will open back up in 6 weeks time :)

@Poshpaddington this is really helpful, thank you. It definitely sounds like ours failed on some things that seem to me quite small