Effectiveness of leadership and management

How an Ofsted Inspector will make their judgement on the Effectiveness of Leadership and Management in your setting

Effectiveness of Leadership and Management is one of the sections an Ofsted inspector will make a judgement against. The grade that is awarded for this section will contribute to the settings overall grade therefore if a setting is hoping to achieve outstanding it is imperative outstanding is awarded in the Effectiveness and Leadership section.

During the inspection the Ofsted inspector will obtain majority of its evidence by talking to the manager and gathering supporting evidence from discussions with staff, parents and children. Samples of polices and procedure will also be looked through.

In order for settings to achieve outstanding in this section here are a few pointers;

• Do your managers and leaders demonstrate an ambitious vision?
• Do they have high expectations for what children can achieve?
• Do they ensure high standards of care are provided throughout the setting?
• Are there effective systems in place to monitor staffs practice, teaching and learning? eg supervisions, appraisals?
• Are there opportunities for staff to continuously enhance their continuing professional development? eg attend training courses
• How does the setting evaluate the quality of the provision? is there a robust self evaluating system in place that takes into account parents, staff, and children’s views?
• How do managers and leaders ensure the learning opportunities are relevant to the children’s individual needs and that they meet statutory requirements as well as children’s interest?
• Does the curriculum support children in getting ready for the next stage in their learning especially getting ready for school?
• How do managers and leaders promote equality and diversity?
• Is there information in your behaviour management policy and equality policy that explains how your setting tackles poor behaviours towards others including bullying and discrimination?
• What systems are in place to narrow any gaps in outcomes between different groups of children – can this be evidenced during inspection?
• How does the setting actively promote British values? eg respecting children wishes and cultural beliefs, teaching children about sharing, encouraging and respecting children voices.
• Do the effective arrangements in place that protect children meet all statutory and other government requirements?
• How do managers and leaders ensure the setting is promoting children’s welfare and preventing radicalisation and extremism?
• Are there effective arrangements in place to safeguard children? and are all staff aware of the policies and procedures relating to this?

To achieve outstanding in this section the inspector will gather evidence to make that judgement, it is managers and leaders responsibility to provide evidence and to demonstrate their leaderships and management skills.

A joint observation will be carried out at some point during the inspection, this is normally with the manager and the inspector. The purpose of this joint observation is for the inspector to gather evidence about the managers leaderships and managements skills.

What evidence the inspector will want to see;

• Systems in place that monitor practitioners and students performance? – Evidence of supervisions and appraisals, it is important that supervisions are linked to staff’s performance eg setting targets with dates of how to  improve  practitioners weaknesses and reviewed with dates.
• Evidence of staff training matrix showing staffs qualification levels as well as identifying staff needs and improving qualifications – this needs to be up to date including all members of staff.
• Evidence of the deployment of staff, showing their qualifications, skills and experience of working with children of different ages.
• Documentation showing what statutory training requirements have been undertaken by all staff eg child protection, first aid and safeguarding training and its impact on improving children’s well being.
• How the physical environment both indoors and outdoors meets the needs of the individual children of different ages including babies and toddlers.
• Systems in place to demonstrate how staff monitor and evaluate the learning programmes – this may be demonstrated in how you evaluate your planning.
• Documentation showing how practitioners monitor children’s progress – this should show how practitioners ensure that gaps are being narrowed and if children need extra support.
• Evidence of how extra funding such the pupil premium is having an impact on narrowing gaps in children’s outcomes – think about what evidence could be used here eg observations, parents comments etc.
• Evidence of safeguarding arrangements, polices, procedures and documentation relating to recruitment practices – ensure the team are fully aware of safeguarding policies and procedures as they will be asked about these during the inspection.
• The inspector will ask staff about the possible signs of abuse and neglect and what to do if they have concerns; evidence will be documented showing practitioners knowledge and how well staff are trained in this subject.
• Evidence showing how well statutory polices and procedure are implemented – the inspector will sample some policies and procedures and observe them in practice.
• Evidence of the effectiveness of self evaluation tools – this may be your online self tool or other systems the setting has in place, the tool must show how parents, carers contribute to the evaluating and monitoring process.
• Documentation showing how managers and leaders have implemented a well focused improvement plan through engagement with staff, children and parents, – this could link to your peer to peer observations, joint observations and  supervision etc
• The Ofsted inspector will want to see how effective arrangements for sharing information and working in partnership with others are implemented into the setting.

 Below is the grade descriptors that the inspector will use, however in order to achieve outstanding you must also meet all the grade descriptors in the good section.

Grade descriptors for the effectiveness of leadership and management

Outstanding (1)

The pursuit of excellence in all of the setting’s activities is demonstrated by an uncompromising, highly successful drive to improve achievement or maintain the highest levels of achievement for all children.

n Incisive evaluation of the impact of staff’s practice leads to rigorous performance management, supervision and highly focused professional development. As a result, teaching is highly effective or improving rapidly.

Leaders and managers actively seek, evaluate and act on the views of parents, staff and children to drive continual improvement.

Highly effective monitoring identifies where children may be slow to develop key skills so that specific programmes of support are implemented to help them catch up. Gaps in achievement between different groups of children, especially those for whom the setting receives additional funding, are negligible or closing.

The provider has an excellent knowledge of the requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage, and implements them highly effectively.

Leaders’ deep understanding of the curriculum and how to apply it to meet the needs and interests of children results in all staff planning highly effective activities. As a result, children are exceptionally well prepared to move on, including, where appropriate, to school.

Leaders set high standards for children’s behaviour at all times. Exemplary relationships between staff provide an excellent model for children’s behaviour towards each other.

Highly effective partnership working leads to improvement in provision and outcomes for children and their families.

The promotion of equality, diversity and British values is at the heart of the setting’s work. It is demonstrated through all its practices, preventing including tackling any instances of discrimination and being alert to potential risks from radicalisation and extremism.

Safeguarding and welfare meet statutory requirements. Leaders and managers have created a culture of vigilance where children’s welfare is actively promoted. Children are listened to and feel safe. Staff are trained to identify and support children who may be at risk of neglect or abuse and they report any concerns. Work with partner agencies to safeguard children’s welfare is effective.