Publication of statistics on childcare providers and inspections: report on the responses to the consultation
Updated 11 May 2021
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/publication-of-statistics-on-childcare-providers-and-inspections/outcome/publication-of-statistics-on-childcare-providers-and-inspections-report-on-the-responses-to-the-consultation
Introduction
On 19 January 2021, Ofsted launched a consultation on the publication of statistics on childcare providers and inspections.
The consultation sought views on proposed changes to our statistical release on childcare providers and inspections. We aimed to capture the widest possible range of views to ensure that the publication meets the needs of all users with an interest or expertise in early years.
We proposed to:
- reduce the publication frequency of our official statistics on childcare providers and inspections from 3 times to 2 times per year
- publish management information twice per year to provide more regular updates to the data
- make changes to data tables to provide a more detailed picture of the childcare sector
The aim of the consultation was to investigate how Ofsted can make the content of this official statistics publication more useful.
The consultation closed on 28 February 2021.
The consultation method
The consultation was open to the public and promoted through social media and our website.
We used a range of communication methods to ensure that we reached a wide variety of people who use, or have an interest in, childcare providers and inspection statistics.
We provided a link to the consultation on our early years statistics collection page shortly after we launched the consultation. This meant that all regular users of our statistics were aware of the consultation.
We promoted the consultation multiple times on Twitter, through the @ofstednews Twitter account. This account has around 247,000 followers. We sent an email to key stakeholders with an interest in childcare and early years data.
We received most of the responses through the online questionnaire and one response by email. We received 28 complete responses.
Summary of responses
We received and considered a total of 28 responses. The feedback to the 3 proposals was largely positive overall.
The large majority of respondents supported proposals 1 and 2, to change the frequency of our official statistics releases and introduce new management information. Most respondents also welcomed the proposed changes to the data tables.
Based on our findings, we will apply all the changes proposed in the consultation. In response to some of the free-text comments, we will also look to include additional data in our management information and official statistics, where possible.
Findings in full
Respondents
Of the 28 complete responses to the survey, 13 (46%) were responding on behalf of an organisation. Six of these were local authorities, 3 were childcare providers and the remainder were from other organisations.
Figure 1: Number of responses to the question ‘Which of the below best describes you?’
| Respondent type | number |
|---|---|
| I’m a leader/manager in a local authority | 6 |
| I’m a childcare provider | 5 |
| I’m a leader/manager of an early years setting | 5 |
| I’m a person with an interest in Ofsted | 3 |
| I’m a parent | 2 |
| I work for a professional organisation | 2 |
| I work for a research organisation | 1 |
| I work for a government department | 1 |
| I prefer not to say | 1 |
| I’m a Member of Parliament | 0 |
| I work for a press organisation | 0 |
| None of the above (please specify): | 0 |
Proposal 1: reducing the frequency of the official statistics
Most respondents (79%) welcomed the proposal to reduce the frequency of our official statistics. The remainder said ‘no’ or ‘don’t know’ in response to this proposed change.
There were several free-text comments in response to this proposal. The majority of these were supportive of the change and agreed that ‘it makes sense to reduce the frequency in order to support richer data’ and that there were usually ‘no significant changes from one term to the next’.
Of those respondents who did not support the change, most said that they required the data more frequently. However, in proposal 2, we outline a statistics publication schedule, which proposes an increase in the publication frequency. This is because we will supplement the official statistics with the introduction of management information.
Based on our responses to this proposal, we will reduce the frequency of our official statistics from 3 times per year to twice per year.
Proposal 2: providing management information
Most respondents (89%) welcomed the proposal to introduce management information. The remaining respondents said ‘don’t know’ in response.
Again, there were a number of free-text responses to this question, which were overwhelmingly supportive of the proposal. Most of the responses mentioned that the increased frequency would be useful and would ‘alleviate the gaps brought about by the reduction of the official statistics’.
A small number of responses said it would be better if the data was even more frequently available and that they would like to see other fields or types of data included.
Based on these responses, we will introduce new management information as outlined in the proposal. We will look to adapt the data to include additional information where possible.
Proposal 3: changes to data tables
Most respondents (85%) welcomed the proposal to make changes to the data tables to provide a more detailed picture of the childcare sector. The remaining respondents said ‘no’ or ‘don’t know’ in response to this proposed change.
There were a small number of free-text responses to this question. One respondent expressed concern about removing table 9. However, we will still make this information available in our underlying datasets. Other respondents asked for additional information in the deprivation and regulatory visits tables.
Based on the responses to proposal 3, we will apply the proposed changes to the data tables. We will also incorporate additional fields into the tables where possible.
Next steps
As a result of this consultation, we will be changing the frequency of our official statistics releases and introducing new management information to provide more regular updates to the data, as detailed in proposals 1 and 2.
We will introduce these changes from spring 2022, when we will publish our first management information data publication. We will then follow the publication schedule outlined below.
Proposed publication schedule from spring 2022
| Date released | Publication | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Released in January/February | Management information | This publication will detail in-year inspections 1 September to 31 December (4 months) and the most recent inspections as at 31 December. |
| Released in June | Official statistics | This publication will detail in-year inspections 1 September to 31 March (7 months) and the most recent inspections as at 31 March. This data will coincide with the end of the financial year. This publication will also include revised inspections from the previous official statistics release. |
| Released in July/August | Management information | This publication will detail in-year inspections 1 April to 30 June (3 months) and the most recent inspections as at 30 June. |
| Released in November | Official statistics | This publication will detail in-year inspections 1 April to 31 August (5 months) and the most recent inspections as at 31 August. This data will coincide with the end of the academic year. This publication will also include revised inspections from the previous official statistics release. |
We will look to include additional data, where possible. This is in response to some of the free-text comments about the management information data and the changes to the official statistics data tables. We will focus on enhancing information in areas such as joiners and leavers in the childcare sector, deprivation and regulatory visits.
As noted, this consultation does not affect the frequency of inspections, the data that we use during an inspection or the way that we publish inspection reports.
Equality, diversity and inclusion
As part of the consultation, we published a draft equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) statement.
We have considered carefully all the comments that we received about equality, diversity and inclusion. There were no concerns that the proposed changes would have a disproportionate impact on individuals or groups who share protected characteristics. Therefore, we will not be making any changes to the equality, diversity and inclusion statement published with the consultation.