Stefanie Walter

Our friends at Fellowship of Inspection Nominees (FIN) and University Vocational Awards Council (UVAC) are working together to gather feedback across the sector to feed into the “Ofsted Big Listen”. All providers are welcome to join a webinar, from all areas of our sector (you don’t need to be a FIN or UVAC member): May 7 at 2pm BST: https://lnkd.in/euRnVgAY Listen to findings from the focus groups and information from the FIN survey and share thoughts. Key questions they are exploring: - What do you think about Ofsted? - What would you like to change about the inspection process or reporting? Get involved and have your say, and/or complete the survey: https://lnkd.in/dFUFZeR3

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A middle-grade result for Newham in their Ofsted/CQC SEND inspection. Effective Early Help but variable EHCPs, long waits for everything and poor transition to adulthood services. https://lnkd.in/eMjizb4N

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** Ofsted's Big Listen ** Ofsted has today published its response to its Big Listen consultation, which sought views on Ofsted's work across the education and care sectors, The inspectorate's response includes several sector-specific proposals, including scrapping one-word inspection judgements, introducing a report-card system, developing more nuanced reporting of the strengths of providers, and introducing a reformed inspection framework. This will be better suited to the early years. Commenting, Neil Leitch, CEO of the Early Years Alliance, said: "It’s very positive to see that Ofsted has both acknowledged the wide-ranging challenges facing the sector and put in place several measures to address these, including – in collaboration with the Department for Education – the eventual scrapping of one-word judgements. "We know early educators go above and beyond to deliver high-quality care and education, but Ofsted inspections have long been a cause of significant stress across the sector. As such, we welcome proposals to recognise the importance of educators in the development of a more nuanced reporting of the strengths of providers. "That said, for these proposals to make certain that inspections are a collaborative and supportive process, today must mark the start – not the end – of Ofsted's engagement with the sector. This is especially important given plans to review the early years inspection framework and apply it more flexibly to different types of settings. "Let's not be under any illusion: there is a long way to go to transform the relationship between the inspectorate and early years providers, but we are hopeful that today marks the first step in a renewed approach." For more detail about Ofsted's response and a breakdown of its proposals for the early years visit: bit.ly/3z3xAzI

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Kinship Care and Special Guardianship: what it is and what it means Colourful, vividly illustrated and presented in accessible and jargon-free language, this booklet provides an easily understandable introduction to the subject. #ThisIsKinshipCare https://ow.ly/zUG950TGxJ4

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CQC Update: Improving The Assessment Approach The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is making urgent changes to its assessment approach to deliver more timely, high-quality evaluations of care services. ▫️ Why? The current scoring system is too slow and overly complex, delaying assessments and limiting the ability to provide an up-to-date view of quality for the public and providers. ▫️ What’s Changing? Starting 2 December, CQC will stop scoring at the evidence category level and instead focus on scoring at the quality statement level, enabling faster and more streamlined assessments. ▫️ What’s Next? Looking ahead to early 2025, CQC are planning further improvements, including: 🔹 Clearer Quality Descriptions: Providing detailed clarity on what they look for under each rating level. 🔹 New Guidance Handbook: A dedicated resource to support providers in understanding expectations. 🔹 Enhanced Professional Judgment: Developing tools to ensure consistent, experience-based ratings. Smarter Scoring: Stopping the use of existing ratings to produce new scores and refining how selected quality statements are used to create accurate ratings. These changes will be developed in partnership with providers and the public, with planned consultations to ensure transparency and effectiveness. ▫️ Action: Find out more about these changes and how they support quality care: https://lnkd.in/ewgXQvQV #HealthAndSocialCare #CQC #QualityImprovement #BetterCare

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Priority Actions Plans (PAPs) for North Northamptonshire following the Ofsted and CQC Report! The Ofsted/CQC SEND inspection report for the North Northamptonshire SEND area partnership (covering education, health and social care services) gave 4 'priority' areas that needed to improve upon urgently, and 6 other areas where they must also show improvement. The partnership have been working together to build a detailed plan to make these improvements, which was reviewed and approved by Ofsted/CQC on 24th May 2024 and is now being published. The DfE have also issued an improvement notice following the inspection results – this is standard practice in these circumstances and the Priority Action Plan and wider SEND & Inclusion Strategy will need to ensure that they meet the requirements of this. The full SEND Priority Action Plans can be viewed here: https://lnkd.in/e8XuWdWG

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📢 Council leaders are calling for single word ratings to be scrapped in Care Quality Commission (CQC) assessments of councils’ adult social care services, following the decision to end single word ratings in Ofsted inspections. Read the full story ➡️ https://lnkd.in/eBESd2vc David Fothergill #socialwork #socialcare #news #update #SocialWorkToday #Socialworknews

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📢 Updated Joint Registration Guidance for Children’s Homes and Healthcare Providers! Attention all providers and commissioners! An updated guide to help you navigate the registration requirements with both CQC and Ofsted has been released. This comprehensive guide now includes: 📑 Clearer Registration Requirements: Enhanced clarity around registration processes with CQC and Ofsted. Detailed explanations on when to register with one or both regulatory bodies. 🔍 New Definitions and Examples: Added definitions and example settings to aid your understanding. More details on the registration and oversight regimes of different settings. This update aims to streamline your registration process, ensuring compliance and better service delivery. Don't miss out on these crucial updates! 🔗 Read the full guide here: https://lnkd.in/e_GyC5BP #ChildrensHomes #Healthcare #CQC #Ofsted #Regulation #Compliance #ProviderGuidance #SocialCare #QualityCare

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