Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of Ofsted inspections of early years providers in evaluating the teaching provided and learning outcomes for children.

The government is committed to driving up quality standards in the early years to give children the best start in life. Ofsted, as the regulator for this area, is Department for Education’s (DfE’s) key partner in delivering this and we have regular discussions with Ofsted at both ministerial and official level to continuously improve the regulatory regime as part of that strategy.

The DfE was fully engaged when Ofsted reviewed the inspection regime and launched the Common Inspection Framework (CIF) in 2015. The CIF introduced separate judgements on the quality of teaching, learning and assessment and outcomes for children into early years inspections for the first time.

Ofsted is currently reviewing its inspection arrangements, with a view to introducing a revised approach in September 2019. As with the current CIF, the DfE will be fully engaged in the review and design of the new arrangements for 2019.