Like schools and other educational institutions, childminder agencies are inspected and quality assured by Ofsted. We knew that with inspections beginning again post-Covid that we were due for a visit and it was just a matter of time. I got ‘The Call’ at 10am on a Thursday and as soon as I saw that it was a Blocked Number on my phone, I just knew what it was.
Sure enough, it was an Ofsted Inspector, letting us know that tiney would receive an inspection from 9am the following Monday and that we needed to send over to them piles of necessary information by the end of the day. Cancelling my meetings for the rest of the week, we managed to get them the information they asked for and then supported them in their inspection the following week, when they interviewed a large number of our childminders, trainees and surveyed our parents and partners.
After three days of intense scrutiny, the five inspectors invited us into a room to give the results. Happily, there were smiles all around. Not only did we get the highest possible rating for a childminder agency, but they had lots of positive feedback to tell us.
They noticed that:
“The whole staff team has a strong passion and commitment to working collaboratively to promote good and continuously improving outcomes for all children." In the wrap up meeting we were told that tiney was a very reflective organisation with a passion and drive to get things right”.
“Through their ‘community hub’, tiney has created a successful system for childminders to network and provide peer-to-peer support.” and that “Childminders, wherever they are located, can partner with each other to build a strong local network.”
“Leaders and managers have good oversight of all safeguarding concerns…Robust and transparent systems are in place… The training programme available to support knowledge and understanding of the Statutory framework for the EYFS safeguarding and welfare requirements receives high acclaim from childminders.”
"The evidence gathered during inspection clearly showed that the training has a good impact on childminders who demonstrate high levels of awareness and understanding in relation to safeguarding procedures.”
People "are very complimentary about the home learning support which is available to them on the app”
Most importantly, they said that the children under your care are “making progress in learning and development with good learning environments”!
I left the meeting feeling incredibly proud of all of the tiney team and community. Thank you for everything you are doing to help unlock the potential of every child!
You can read the full report here.