Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has plans to strengthen the Ofsted inspection process for early years settings to improve child safety outcomes.

Through our Best Start in Life strategy, we are investing in raising the quality, frequency and consistency of early years inspections to improve child safety outcomes. We continually monitor and review requirements to make sure children are kept as safe as possible.

Ofsted began inspecting under the revised Education Inspection Framework on 10 November and settings now receive an Ofsted report card following an inspection which will provide a much clearer and broader picture of their performance. From April, Ofsted will receive further investment to improve inspection quality and consistency through stronger quality assurance and targeted inspector training. We are also funding Ofsted to inspect all new providers within 18 months of opening and move towards inspecting all providers at least once every four years, compared to the current six-year window. We will also work to introduce reporting on nursery chains to address issues spanning across groups of providers.