Early learning and childcare inspections
- Arrangements for ELC settings
- Being ready for inspection
- Briefing for heads of setting
- Guidance on issuing pre-inspection questionnaires
- Briefings for parents
Arrangements for inspecting ELC settings
Through inspection, HM Inspectors (HMI) aim to promote improvement and successful innovation that enhances children’s experiences as well as providing assurance to stakeholders. HMI focus on the quality of children's learning and outcomes, and the ELC setting’s capacity to improve.
HMI evaluate how well an ELC setting is performing in a range of areas. They use quality indicators (QIs) from the quality improvement framework for the early learning and childcare sectors.
HMI use 2 possible QI combinations during ELC inspections. One combination uses learning, teaching and assessment and wellbeing, and inclusion and equality. The other combination uses learning, teaching and assessment and children’s progress.
Partnership working with the Care Inspectorate
Some inspections of ELC settings are undertaken by both the Care Inspectorate and HMIE. These are called shared inspections. Shared inspections are carried out by inspectors from the Care Inspectorate and HMIE at the same time.
HMI and Care Inspectors evaluate how well an ELC setting is performing in a range of areas. The QIs used on a shared inspection will be
- learning, teaching and assessment
- children’s progress
- staff skills
- knowledge, values and deployment
- nurturing care and support
The evaluations of both organisations will be included in a final shared report to parents.
Being ready for inspection
Briefing the inspection team on the ELC setting's view of its improvement through self-evaluation
Inspection provides the opportunity for ELC settings to show that they know themselves well and that they are using self-evaluation to focus on improving outcomes for all children.
Heads of settings should set aside approximately 1 hour for an introductory meeting on the first day of the inspection for this purpose. It is important for this discussion that heads of settings focus on the outcomes for all children who attend the setting. This meeting will be the start of an ongoing dialogue with the inspection team about the setting’s performance and approaches to improvement.
This initial meeting should focus on:
- giving a clear overview of the setting’s strengths and aspects for improvement
- identifying the main sources of evidence which underpin staff knowledge of the setting's performance and improvement, and making these available
- showing how staff prioritise areas for improvement
Improvements through self-evaluation
Heads of settings and staff are most likely to use the quality improvement framework for the early learning and childcare sectors to support self evaluation. This document outlines the 6-point scale used to grade quality indicators (QIs).
Briefing for heads of settings
Throughout the inspection, HMI will engage heads of settings and staff in professional dialogue with the aim of supporting improvement.
The advice and support materials below have been designed to help heads of settings to prepare for the inspection and to outline the kinds of activities which will take place during the inspection. They aim to answer some of the questions staff may have regarding the inspection.
Briefing note for heads of settings
These briefing notes help staff to understand the ELC inspection process for your particular setting and the inspection type.
Child protection and safeguarding self-evaluation form
This form is used to record information about child protection and safeguarding. Heads of settings are asked to return this with the pre-inspection documents. The Managing Inspector (MI) and/or the ELC lead team member will discuss the information provided in this form with relevant staff during the inspection.
Guidance on issuing pre-inspection questionnaires
Guide for issuing pre-inspection questionnaires
An important aspect of inspection is for stakeholders to be given the opportunity to provide their views of the setting. To gather the views of parents, staff and partners, HMI ask the head of setting to direct stakeholders to a pre inspection questionnaire. A sample of the questionnaires can be found below. HMI make Gaelic versions of all questionnaires available when inspecting Gaelic Medium Education. HMI welcome responses in Gaelic.
Within the email notifying the head of setting of the inspection, there are links to online surveys which hold the pre-inspection questionnaires. The questionnaires are issued to the following groups of people.
Parents
All parents should receive the link to the pre-inspection questionnaire. Parents may complete a pre-inspection questionnaire for each of their children attending the setting being inspected. The pre-inspection questionnaire asks parents to indicate whether they are providing one response only or if they are providing one response for each of their children who attend the setting.
As part of the inspection, a member of the inspection team will meet with a range of stakeholders. Parents are asked within the pre-inspection questionnaire to indicate whether they would like to meet with a member of the inspection team and, if so, to provide their contact details. The inspection administrator will contact those who have indicated they would like to meet with a member of the inspection team to invite them to a meeting.
Staff
All staff should receive the link the to the pre-inspection questionnaire. HMIE have created pre-inspection questionnaires for the following broad groupings. A survey link will be provided for each staffing group as shown below:
- practitioners
- support staff
- teachers
Partners
HMIE defines partners within quality improvement framework for the early learning and childcare sectors to include all individuals or organisations that deliver learning and contribute to the life and work of the ELC setting. This may include support agencies, libraries, community learning and development services, third sector and community organisations. All those who work in partnership with the ELC setting should be sent the link to the pre-inspection questionnaire.
Distributing the links
Heads of settings should use their established methods of communication to inform stakeholders of the inspection. They should direct them to the information that is available from the HMIE website and provide the appropriate link to the pre-inspection questionnaire. When sharing these links, heads should include the date the survey will close.
Heads of settings are best placed to know the most effective ways of communicating and engaging with their stakeholders to ensure that as many as possible can provide their views about the setting.
HM Inspectors recognise that ELC settings will want to encourage as many of their stakeholders as possible to complete the pre-inspection questionnaire. To aid with this, the inspection administrator can provide heads of settings with a regular update on responses rates. Where, for example, the response rates are lower for a particular stakeholder group, heads of settings can then send another communication which reminds and encourages more responses.
What HMIE does with the information gathered
HM Inspectors use an online survey tool, provided by Formic, which holds pre-inspection questionnaires and responses.
Formic follows some of the principles of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
Assistance may be required for those who use screen readers or keyboard-only controls.
If stakeholders wish to increase font size to help them complete the survey, it is best to use the browser controls. For example, Internet Explorer offers options to increase text size via the view menu.
It is important that HMIE protects the information gathered through the pre inspection questionnaires and that stakeholders understand how HMIE will do this.
HMIE may use the information for statistical purposes, but no individual responses will be identified. HMI give heads of settings a summary of the results of all the responses received, unless there are fewer than 10 responses.
Individual views remain confidential, unless they raise specific issues, for example in relation to child protection. In these circumstances, comments would be shared with heads of settings and appropriate agencies. HMIE will then store responses confidentially on secure servers for a period of 5 years.
Personal information will not be shared with any other third-party organisation and will only be used for the purpose it was obtained in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. HMIE are also subject to the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002. Further information is available on the HMIE website.
The ELC inspection reports and the analysis of the pre-inspection questionnaire responses are also published on the HMIE website.
Information for parents
This section aims to help parents understand the inspection of an ELC setting.
What happens in the inspection of your child’s ELC setting?
Your child’s ELC setting is to have an inspection to find out how well your child is being cared for and supported to make progress in their learning. HMI will take account of the type and nature of the ELC setting and its children’s needs. The inspection will be carried out by a team which may include HMI, Associate Assessors and Assistant Inspectors working for HMIE. In shared inspections, the Care Inspectorate will also be part of the team. In ELC settings where there is Gaelic Medium Education, there will be specialist inspectors for Gaelic on the team.
The report published following the inspection will highlight what the setting does well and where it needs to improve.
Before the inspection
You will receive a pre-inspection questionnaire so that HMI can find out what you think about the ELC setting. Staff and partners will also be invited to complete a questionnaire.
All individual responses will be treated in confidence unless they raise concerns about the wellbeing of children or staff in the ELC setting.
Parents are invited to indicate on the pre-inspection questionnaire whether they would be available to meet with members of the inspection team during the inspection. The inspection administrator will contact parents to make the necessary arrangements.
During the inspection
During the visit the inspection team:
- will visit spaces used by children, observe learning and teaching and talk to staff and children
- may spend some time looking at your child’s achievements and progress through their special folders/learning journals
After the inspection
At the end of the inspection or review, HMI will share the findings with the ELC setting and agree any follow-up activity. The inspection team will publish a report for parents on the HIME website. An analysis of the pre-inspection questionnaire responses is also published on the HMIE website.
Where HMI have confidence in the work of the setting and that the setting has the capacity to continue to improve, no more visits are made in connection with the inspection. In some cases, HMI will carry out a further inspection to support staff in making improvements.