The Scottish Government

Title

Pre-school centres receiving positive inspection reports

Associated Targets

Increase the proportion of pre-school centres receiving positive inspection reports.

Brief Description

The indicator provides information on the percentage of pre-school centres that had positive evaluations in all of a reference subset of the quality indicators used by HM Inspectorate of Education (HMIE) in inspections of pre-school centres.

Strategic Objective(s) to Which Indicator Relates

The indicator informs progress in relation to the Smarter Strategic Objective, by showing the extent to which there is an improving trend in inspectors' professional judgements about the quality of outcomes for pupils being achieved in the rolling programme of pre-school inspections that they undertake.

More Detailed Definitions

Definitions of Keywords

The reference subset of Quality Indicators ( QI) is:

1.1 Improvements in performance
2.1 Children's experiences
5.3 Meeting learning needs

as published in Child at the Centre 2, page 12:13 on the HMIE website

( http://www.hmie.gov.uk/documents/publication/catcseey.pdf).

The definition of pre-school centres includes all Local Authority (including nursery classes/departments in primary schools) and all private and voluntary pre-school centres which are in partnership with Local Authorities to provide pre-school education for children.

The definition of positive inspection reports is the percentage receiving satisfactory or better, good or better and very good or better in all three reference quality indicators as defined in Child at the Centre 2, Appendix One. With effect from inspections commencing in April 2008, HMIE will report using the term 'satisfactory' instead of the previous 'adequate', but with the same definition.

Evidence Source

Quality Indicator (QI) evaluations from pre-school inspections carried out by HM Inspectorate of Education (HMIE) from April 2008. The unit of measurement for this indicator is the percentage of centres with satisfactory or better, good or better or very good or better in all three of the reference subset of quality indicators. It is a proxy measure for the quality of education in Scotland's publicly funded pre-school centres.

Baseline and Past Trends

Representative baselines and trends are not yet available. The baseline will be built up from inspections from April 2008 to March 2011.

Methodology for Data Source

The baseline will be compiled from a sample of pre-school centres across Scotland inspected over the complete three-year period 2008/09 to 2010/11. Annual results for all centres in each year from 2011/12 onwards will be compared with the baseline. A national sub-sample of inspected pre-school centres will also be reported on in each of the first three years. The sub-samples will be notified in advance to the Scottish Government by HMIE and any changes documented. Results for each year will be available for Local Authorities to report on the pre-school centres inspected in their areas.

Data Ownership and Quality Assurance

The data is collated by HMIE for the evaluations made by inspectors for the reference subset of quality indicators. The results are the professional evaluations of HMIE.

Publication of Data

The results of individual inspection reports are published on the HMIE website after the inspection has taken place ( www.hmie.gov.uk). The indicator based on a national sub-sample and a profile of the results for reference QIs for each year 2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010-2011 will also be published on the HMIE website annually, with the three year baseline period also to be published in 2011. Annual results will be published for 2012 onwards. A wider set of Quality Indicator results will be published in the Improving Scottish Education publication planned by HMIE for early 2009 (note data will be prior to 2008) and also in subsequent publications in this series.

Future issues or reviews

Impact of any inspection model changes on quality indicator evaluations.