YMCA St Mary’s Nursery in Newport on the Isle of Wight has appealed in the strongest way possible against its recent shocking Ofsted report which has downgraded this highly respected formerly ‘outstanding’ early years setting to ‘inadequate’.
The nursery is fiercely defending its outstanding reputation and is adamant that the grounds on which the new rating has been decided are ‘procedurally inaccurate’ and that the judgement is simply wrong. A complaint has been lodged with Ofsted giving a detailed summary of the misrepresentation and inaccuracies of the report and describes the report as a ‘blatant and wilful misrepresentation of the events of the inspection’.
5 members of staff were so upset that they considered quitting the day after the Ofsted inspection took place. The local news comes in the wake of a number of national stories regarding the impact of Ofsted inspections after the death of a headteacher in January.
Emma Corina, Director of Housing and Development at YMCA Fairthorne Group, told ITV News:
“It’s really really stressful. It’s very subjective depending on which inspector comes and how they conduct themselves and we’ve had experiences at both ends of the scale. These 2 most recent ones have felt very punitive. The staff have been extremely upset and they’ve found the experience very distressing.
“The latest one on the Isle of Wight we had staff in tears as a result of this. We’ve had to spend that period since the inspection trying to help them recover but they’re still very distressed about the experience.
“What we would really like Ofsted to do is to commission independent research into 2 factors. 1, does the evidence say their inspections have improved quality? 2, does the methodology of their inspection framework, which feels punitive, does that actually affect change or does it make people feel fearful?”
YMCA Fairthorne’s Chief Executive, Phillipa Spicer, also commented:
“We are deeply upset and angry that we have been wrongly labelled as inadequate. We have an excellent reputation of which we are extremely proud, and we have first-class, trusting relationships with parents and the local community. We will fight this injustice with every effort.
“The grounds for the Inadequate rating was our response to the scenario posed by the Ofsted Inspector of, ‘What course of action would you take if you witnessed a member of staff assaulting a child’. Without exception, all our staff stated that we would first ensure the child was safe and protected by removing the offending member of staff and then calling the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO); this was deemed incorrect by the Ofsted inspector resulting in the ‘inadequate’ rating. Not only was our response the correct one, in line with legislation and our charity’s policy, the Inspector was not able to evidence any legislation to support her position when asked to validate her statement by our nursery manager.
“We are adamant that the reasons stated by the inspector for this grading are wholly inappropriate and, worse, counter to a culture of safeguarding. This is simply not acceptable. We have demanded either a regrade or a reinspection.
“Unfortunately, unlike other care and social care sectors, there is no independent Ombudsman to which we can appeal. This results in Ofsted holding considerable power, even at times when their work is under question. This is an unsatisfactory and unfair situation.
“We want to reassure the families of those children we look after, who put their trust and faith in us, and our other stakeholders, that we remain committed to always deliver the best and safest care that we can. We will continue to provide services of the highest standard.”
Agreed, Why does anyone accept what Ofsted say as they are like MOT tester’s,some will fail badly – others will pass with no advisories on same vehicle. Many larger childrens – like Social Services get notice and get staff overtime and fix the records in advance and inforce whith staff what they can/can’t say to inspectors – even having to debrief with managers after so managers can manipulate and be prepared when Ofsted question them . Ofsted is a cruel and damaging process. We all agree that establishments need checking on but could be done to benefit of children, parent’s and employers – bullying is not the way – people are frightened of them not respected.
Surely if the children are happy ,and their families are happy, that is what counts…
Some of these inspectors are proper little Hitler,s ..
Maybe they would be better doing food hygiene in dodgy takeaways???.. Bet they would shut them down …….
I don’t know what they’re complaining about. Constantly changing the goalposts is a recognised way of ensuring that inspectors keep their jobs. After all, if they can’t keep finding fault, there wouldn’t be any need for them. Come on chaps. Let’s back our inspectors and their needless inspections!
I failed my driving test. That was stressful. Can I point the finger at the examiner?
An Ofsted inspection isn’t a pass/fail test and it is largely a subjective assessment of an entire school (etc) based on a snapshot of a mere two days taking no account of staff sickness or transitory problems affecting just those days.
The fact that school frequently fall from outstanding or good to inadequate in the space of the 4 years between inspections shows there are severe issues with the inspection methodology.
Oh, and yes, you can appeal your driving test failure if you think the examiner did not carry out the test as prescribed in law. In other words you can “point the finger” at them.
Of course in lower standard areas where most of the children will be brought up on free state handouts, tax credits, free rent and c.tax, and many will be from ‘alleged’ single parents, YET who never sleep alone, those children’s standard of home life will be far far lower than most others.
As these children will be used to no routine, little discipline, unlikely to know their ‘father’, missed meals, lack of love from drugged, drunk, or just selfish too young ‘muver’ who expects the state to look after as well as fund their ‘unplanned’ offspring, then these people will not ‘demand’ a high standard of child care, as their children don’t receive it in their homes.
We need inspectors to try to raise low standards, NOT accept such
And what does any of that have to do with this article? It appears that the staff gave a very plausible response to the situation posed.
If you’ve read that whole article and come to this conclusion and response, I can only assume that the driving test was not the only one you failed
Please remember that the views of an OFSTED inspection are just that views, they are compiled by so called experts who could never cut it in main stream education..
I find all this hard to believe. Ventnor early years managed an outstanding ofsted grade off their own backs. Without all the financial support of a large organisation trying to change the outcome.
Why can’t they take it on the chin and put things right, just like Ventnor.
Having worked in schools for years, I’d say most of us know that OFSTED inspections are very subjective. It really does depend on who you get doing the inspection. There’s no yes/no answers, no categorically right or wrong, it’s all about what the inspector sees and hears, or thinks they see and hear, on the day.
As others have said, some schools etc get notice before inspections take place and ‘difficult’ children can be taken out on trips for the day or otherwise hidden away from inspectors. That really does happen.
If it was just about safety and education it would be understandable, but it’s all encompassing and can even include how multicultural a school is seen to be.
Having worked there and keeping in touch with staff I’m 99.9% sure this is absolutely rubbish. I was there at the last Outstanding inspection and they highly rated all of us.some staff have their own children attend . I feel for the staff keep your heads up girls.