Ofsted: coronavirus (COVID-19) rolling guidance update

Government advice

Coronavirus (COVID-19): what you need to do includes information on:

• how to protect yourself and others
• employment and financial support
• school closures, education, and childcare
• businesses and other organisations
• healthcare workers and carers
• travel
• how coronavirus is affecting public services
• how you can help

There are answers to questions like:

• should I stay at home or go to work?
• what can I do and not do?

There is also advice for employers and information for employees.

Inspections

We have suspended all routine inspections of schools, further education, early years and social care providers. The Secretary of State has allowed Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector to do this.

Urgent inspections where specific concerns have been raised can still go ahead. This allows us to prioritise the immediate safety of children where necessary.

As far as we are able, we continue to carry out our important regulatory work to help maintain social care provision for the most vulnerable children. We are operating as a proportionate and responsible regulator, in what we know are challenging times, focused on children’s safeguarding and well-being.

We are in daily contact with the Department for Education (DfE) to discuss the COVID-19 outbreak and its impact across education and social care.

Inspection reports

We are not publishing reports from our recent inspections of schools, further education and early years providers until they reopen as normal for all children/students. We continue to publish a small number of reports from recent social care inspections.

Sending us documents

If we have previously asked you to post documents to us, please either scan or photograph them and send with your unique reference number (URN) to enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk. You can find your URN on your registration, your inspection report(s), and on your Ofsted reports page.

Due to COVID-19 (coronavirus), there are likely to be delays in reviewing incoming post.

Early years and childcare

The DfE has published guidance for Ofsted-registered childcare providers about childcare provision following the outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19).

If your paediatric first aid certificate is due to expire, see advice from the Health and Safety Executive. It has announced a 3-month extension to the validity for all certificates coming up for renewal on or after 16 March 2020.

Invoices for annual fees issued from 3 April 2020 will now have a due date of 30 September 2020, so that you have freedom to delay your payment during this time. Your annual fee date will not change.

Childminders and childcarers looking after the children of key workers on domestic premises can apply to work from non-domestic premises for up to 50% of their time. If you would like to do this, email your application form to regulatoryteam@ofsted.gov.uk. We will review the details and contact you as quickly as possible to discuss your request.

Closing or resigning registrations

At this time, you do not need to let us know if your early years or childcare setting is closed due to COVID-19 (coronavirus), whether that’s because you are not caring for any children of critical workers or vulnerable children, or because you are ill.

You should tell us if you are resigning your registration. To do this, email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk from your email address that we have on your registration and include your unique reference number (URN). You can find this on your registration, your inspection report(s), and on your setting’s Ofsted reports page.

Nannies

Nannies on the voluntary part of the Childcare Register should follow government guidance on isolation. We suggest you discuss this with the family you work for to see if it is appropriate for you to carry on working.

Children’s social care

All routine inspections are suspended until further notice.

We continue to register social care providers and managers. We are making some temporary changes to the steps we take in completing the registration process. Most contact throughout the process will be by telephone, email or video call. We will keep any visits to a minimum and will follow the latest government guidelines, restrictions and safety advice.

Notifying Ofsted

You only need to notify us about incidents that the regulations require you to tell us about. We do not need you to tell us about anything else. However, we do expect you to risk assess and carefully record any steps you are taking in running your services.

Emergency inspections

We reserve the right to inspect in emergency situations, for example when we receive complaints or whistle-blowing information that suggests children may be at risk of harm, or when we might want to visit in order to lift a restriction on the numbers of children who can live in a children’s home.

Regulation 44 inspections

We do not have the power to lift regulatory requirements. Legislative change is a matter for central government and, ultimately, parliament. We are in close contact with government officials as the situation develops.

We expect all providers to continuously risk assess their actions to reflect the risks that COVID-19 poses and to follow Public Health England’s advice. We expect people to think about alternative ways to keep in contact, supervise provision and maintain oversight, such as using telephone and Skype, while recognising the limitations of this approach.

We are, of course, sensitive to the challenges that all providers are facing. We take a balanced and proportionate approach to regulation, taking account of how people have tried to satisfy regulatory requirements in these difficult circumstances.

Schools, further education and early years providers

The government’s advice coronavirus (COVID-19): what you need to do has a section on school closures, education and childcare. This includes guidance on:

• provisions for vulnerable children and the children of key workers
• free school meals

Ofsted staff

As well as focusing on our regulatory work, we recognise that our staff might be able to help relieve some pressure across the wider system.

We’re currently matching our staff into supporting roles within local authorities, social care, education and the wider Civil Service. We are doing this in a coordinated way to target support where it’s most needed.

Ofsted Inspectors (serving headteachers who carry out inspections on our behalf) have returned to their schools.

Consultations

We currently have 2 consultations:

• Changes to Ofsted’s post-inspection processes and complaints handling: proposed improvements, which was due to close on 31 March, open to responses till 30 April 2020
• Initial teacher education inspection framework and handbook 2020: inspecting the quality of teacher education, open to responses till 3 April 2020

We plan to publish the new initial teacher education (ITE) inspection framework in the summer term to give providers time to familiarise themselves with it. By then – and through discussions with the DfE – we may be able to clarify when routine inspections will resume, including those of ITE providers.