The wait is finally over. Was it worth it?
The long-awaited new inspection framework is now in place, and Ofsted promises it will be better for the sector and less burdensome for nominees and teams. One only has to read how providers will meet the new evaluations to realise the light at the end of the tunnel may be someone bringing more work! Across seven areas to be evaluated, there are something like 63 separate areas that providers must fully meet for a secure evaluation against ‘expected standards’. We are still trying to work out how ‘more’ is ‘less’.
We have just published a new self-assessment template (A601) on the FIN website. We make no pretence that this will be easy to complete; however, the approach is to encourage short bullet responses to each aspect under the expected standard. From the webinars, we understand that an initial question at an inspection may be about how, as a provider, you see yourself in elation to the framework. There is only one way any provider can respond to this, and that’s to have already evaluated your provision against every single item. Remember, for a secure judgment, each aspect must be met in full. At this time, we are not entirely sure what happens when a single element is partially or even almost secure, does the whole element and aspect fail, if yes, this is a harsh and unfair judgement?
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