Get on Board Ofsted: Listen and Respond to the Ofsted Big Conversation

Back in 2013, I set up the Ofsted Big Conversation (OBC) because, frankly, the relationship between Ofsted and the Early Years sector had become pretty awful. There was frustration, anger and a sense that inspection was being done to us, rather than with any meaningful understanding of the sector. So, rather than continue shouting from opposite sides of the fence, we decided to have a conversation. And, to Ofsted’s credit, they joined it.

Over the years that relationship improved. OBCs sprang up from Cornwall to Cumbria and Ofsted leaders and inspectors regularly turned up, listened, explained and sometimes changed things. Indeed, Ofsted itself subsequently acknowledged that the Big Conversation had helped create a more trusting and collaborative relationship with the sector.

But here is the danger with improved relationships: we get complacent. And now is definitely not the time for complacency. The renewed inspection framework is bedding in, with further changes to the Early Years toolkit introduced this September. Ofsted has clarified that settings must meet both the grading standards and relevant EYFS requirements to achieve the expected standard. There is also greater detail around safer sleeping, weaning and eating.

Meanwhile, the wider debate about inspection has become decidedly lively. Education Secretary Lucy Powell has told Ofsted to revisit aspects of the school’s framework amid concerns about stress, fairness and how inspection reflects disadvantage and SEND.

So, this feels like a very good moment to get talking again.

There are questions for Early Years too. What does “exceptional” actually look like? Who is receiving it and who isn’t? Ofsted’s own toolkit sets a deliberately high bar, including evidence of transformational impact for disadvantaged children and those with SEND. We need to understand how that is being interpreted in practice.

We also need data, not anecdotes whispered darkly over the nursery kettle. Ian Morgan will be joining the London OBC to help us examine what the emerging inspection data is actually telling us. His platform is really helpful and we should all engage with it.  Ofsted is listening too. Following the Dame Christine Gilbert review, it commissioned IFF Research to independently evaluate the renewed inspection framework, including surveys and qualitative research with recently inspected providers. The final evaluation is due in 2027.

So, what would I like us to put on the OBC table?

First, inspector training and consistency. If this more nuanced model is going to work, inspectors need the confidence and support to make balanced professional judgements, and providers need to understand what has driven those judgements.

Second, parents. Can Ofsted work with us to make the new system genuinely clear and useful to parents? A report card is only valuable if people understand what it is telling them.

Third, complaints and appeals. I remain convinced that we need a genuinely independent complaints and appeals process. That conversation is not going away.

The OBC works best when the room is broad, curious and occasionally challenging. So invite nursery leaders, teachers, childminders, local authorities, researchers, academics, policy makers and politicians. Bring questions. Bring evidence. Bring disagreement. Just perhaps leave the pitchfork at home. And if there isn’t an active OBC near you, start one.

As Frank Sinatra almost sang:

Start spreading the news,

We’re planning today,

We want you to be a part of it,

Ofsted, Ofsted…

Well, he would have done if he had worked in Early Years.

Come to the next London Ofsted Big Conversation. Let’s listen, challenge, understand and improve the system together. Because the bigger the conversation, the better.