Little or no notice for inspections

• No notice at all for day care settings
• A little notice for childminders
• A little notice for 'combined' settings (eg day care in schools)
• Will adjust to accommodate particular types of settings (eg holiday playschemes with frequent outings)
  

Four point grading scale - in common with schools

• Outstanding
• Good
• Satisfactory
• Inadequate
• Two elements to inadequate
  

New report format which uses Every Child Matters 5 outcomes for children which encompass the national standards.

• Being safe
• Being healthy
• Enjoying and Achieving
• Making a Positive Contribution (Inclusion - please see further information at the bottom of this page)
• Organisation

(Please see download on the right to see how national standards and curriculum fit into the 5 outcomes)

Use of a self-evaluation form

• OFSTED have provided a self evaluation form for settings to grade themselves for each of the outcomes. They then identify evidence which justifies this grading and show areas to develop.
• For more information please access the SEF part of the site

QA schemes not taken into account in determining length or frequency of inspections

Dorset Support Materials

Dorset Early Years Service have recognised that more guidance would be helpful to support the pre-school/daycare settings and in partnership with Surestart have produced the Self Evaluation Support Tool.

This support tool has been created by the Childcare Support Team at Dorset Sure Start, and the Early Years Education Team, to help you to evaluate your setting against the Outcomes Framework for Children and KEEP (Key Elements for Effective Practice). The Framework helps us all to develop our work for and with young people to make sure they achieve their outcomes.

There are five outcomes so we have created five support tools, one for each outcome. They are;

• Being Healthy
• Staying Safe
• Enjoying and Achieving
• Making a Positive Contribution
• Organisation and Leadership (including KEEP Principles)

Completion of the Support tools is not compulsory, but we believe strongly that it will benefit you and your children:-

• Ofsted expect you to think about the quality of your provision from the child's perspective. The support tools can help with this.
• All the objectives in each support tool are linked back to the relevant National Standard or section of the Foundation Stage Curriculum, again, a big help with Ofsted inspections.
• Working through the support tool will help you to identify areas that you may want to target for improvement.
• Once you know what you want to change you'll need an Action Plan. A sample Action Plan is included with each Support Tool.
• Completing the Support Tool cannot guarantee a favourable result at your Ofsted inspection, but the process can improve the quality of the childcare you offer and Ofsted will view any self-evaluation process as an example of best practice.

You can gain support and advice for your setting regarding the self evaluation process from your Dorset Sure Start Adviser Childcare Support (SSA CS) and your Early Years Inclusion Consultant.

SSA Childcare Support (formerly known as CSO's) are able to give advice and support on the development of the care standards and Birth to Three provision within your setting.

Early Years Inclusion Consultants (EYIC) give advice and support on the development of the educational practice and inclusion aspects of your provision.

Contact details are given below.

For more information please see the OFSTED site, the link is given on the right of this page.

OfSTED will want to see that a setting is evaluating all aspects of its practice. The 'Making a Positive Contribution' booklet from the SEF support tool will help you with this process when looking at Inclusive practice.

You can also obtain further advice from the OfSTED website and downloading the publication 'Removing Barriers'.

• Name: Early Years Team
  Email: earlyyears@dorsetcc.gov.uk
  Tel: 01305 225633/4/5
  Fax: 01305 224348
  Full details for Early Years Team