ABSTRACT
Ofsted does have an important role in inspecting provision across the early years and social care, though this role is not without a critique, especially more recently as the policy direction of the Coalition Government positions Ofsted as the sole arbitrators of quality (DfE, 2013b). While there is no dispute that an inspection service currently has a role to play in England and that the quality of early years provision has improved, there are still issues around the wellbeing and safeguarding of children in early years settings. The inspection data for the period 1st September 2011 to 31st August 2012 indicated that of the 16,955 early years providers inspected only 2,454 (14%) of providers were outstanding in safeguarding and 449 (3%) were actually deemed inadequate. Equally concerning are the statistics focusing on how ‘safe’ children felt in settings. Only 2604 (15%) were given ‘outstanding’ in this area, 3324 (20%) were ‘satisfactory’ and 387 (2%) were ‘inadequate (Ofsted, 2012).
