I should say, first of all, that I have spent the last 6 years (or so) lobbying DfE and Ofsted on behalf of providers, to reduce the paperwork burden. I took up this position following feedback from colleagues who told me they were finding the current expectations overwhelming and stressful, to the point where thousands of providers were leaving the early years sector, citing excessive paperwork expectations as one of the main, regularly repeated reasons.
We are now finally at a point where DfE and Ofsted have acknowledged the issues they have created by, for example, giving us documents like ‘Early Years Outcomes’ to use as a development tick list and asking to see tracking and other documentation during inspection.
DfE and Ofsted have finally, clearly clarified that we only need to do the paperwork required by the statutory frameworks – the Early Years Foundation Stage (2017) and from Sept 2021, the EYFS 2020 and, for safeguarding and welfare, the Childcare Register.
For example, Ofsted have confirmed that they will not want to see or inspect written documents such as –
- Termly progress reports
- Daily dairies
- Colourful tracker graphs
- Tick lists or check lists showing the child’s progress
- Observations - long, short, wow moment etc
- Cohort tracking (for group providers not childminders)
- Individual / next steps planning
- Group planning
- Transition reports etc…
This means that the only document Ofsted will ask to see during inspection, to ensure providers comply with the EYFS (2017 and 2020) learning and development requirements, is the Progress Check at 2. This is assuming, of course, that you have a child in your setting aged between 2 and 3 years who is due a written check.
During inspection, Ofsted inspectors will ask the child’s key person to talk about a child’s learning, development and progress. I have recommended previously that you have a ‘story in your head about every child’ – their likes, dislikes, interests, learning styles, knowledge and skills. You will need to know what they are working on now and next and how you share this information, including ideas for home learning, with parents. I will continue to say this in my training because I think it’s important that we all have this information about each child, ready to share with passing Ofsted inspectors.
When I stopped the webinar to review provider questions, I honestly felt like I was taking colleagues’ joy of living away from them by sharing this information. Many providers on the webinar seemed to be horrified – they used the ‘chat’ section to share with colleagues that they love paperwork and are going to carry on producing it, regardless of what DfE and Ofsted say.
For example, some colleagues shared that they really enjoy writing diaries for parents and ticking progress checklists, even when I explained that tick lists would be out of date from September 2021 and we would need to use our professional judgement. Some colleagues apparently love tracking every child in finite detail against a flawed set of age-inappropriate judgements in Early Years Outcomes and are waiting for a new tick list document to be produced for them to use. Other providers shared that they were worried they wouldn’t know their children well enough if they didn’t tick off lists and some said that parents like written reports.
This worries me deeply – what has happened to having a good understanding of child development and using professional judgement? What has happened to those practitioners who told me they wanted to focus on their practice, not paperwork? What has happened to practitioner confidence in their roles – their values and ethos – their ability to do their jobs without writing everything down? What has happened to having conversations with parents, made even easier by using virtual information sharing platforms?
I ended up saying, again and again: ‘It’s up to you – if you want to write things down or tick lists, carry on – but don’t say you are doing it for Ofsted because they won’t be interested when they come once in every 6 year inspection window. If you are going to write unnecessary documentation, do it because it’s important to you and parents. Before you start any unnecessary record keeping, I advise you to reflect on the value of what you are doing’.
I do admit, though, that I am a little confused!
In my next free webinar for Childcare.co.uk I will talk about 'Concerns about Development Matters 2020' and I have further webinars planned to cover all areas of Development Matters 2020 and changes that have been made to the EYFS 2020 ...
**Gold Childcare.co.uk members can watch the 'Changes to Development Matters' webinar again – it is available on the webinar player for Childcare.co.uk gold members – www.childcare.co.uk/webinarplayer.
Paperwork photo: Nursery World magazine on Google images.