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The Early Years Alliance has issued a comment following Ofsted's announcement that it will put in place a number of changes to the inspection process. Included in this are changes to the complaints process which will apply to all education settings, including the early years. However, the remainder of the changes will only apply to schools.

Further detail about the changes can be read .

Commenting Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance, said:

“Ofsted knows all too well that concerns over the impact of inspections are far from limited to schools, with our own research showing that inspections are the greatest cause of stress among those working in nurseries, pre-schools and childminding settings.  

“How can it be acceptable, therefore, to announce a series of reforms to the way schools are inspected, while completely ignoring the need for change in the early years? 

“It’s clear that Ofsted has completely underestimated the negative impact of inspections on the early years workforce – and of course, this is at a time when we should be doing all we can to encourage educators to join, and remain in, the early years. Our sector, and the talented professionals that work within it, deserve so much better. 

“It is absolutely critical, therefore, that as discussions around Ofsted inspections continue, any reforms are applied to all education settings inspected under the Common Inspection Framework – including early years providers – and not just schools.  The idea that inspections should be a collaborative and positive process focused on supporting high-quality provision is true of the whole education sector, and not just a part of it.”