Corby’s world-renowned Pen Green Centre achieves outstanding grade in new Ofsted report - a fast re-inspection following their inadequate grade last year

Corby’s world-renowned Pen Green Centre has achieved an outstanding grade in its most recent Ofsted - a fast re-inspection following its inadequate grade at the end of last year.

On Wednesday, January 10, 2024, two senior HMIs from the Early Years team re-inspected the early years (0-3) settings at Pen Green Centre following a greatly disputed inspection of the same settings in September 2023.

The report from this re-inspection states that the provision is outstanding in all areas with no recommendations.

Adam Cooper, Pen Green chairman of governors, said: “For our wonderful, hardworking staff this is vindication of their dedication to the children and families we serve at Pen Green and underlines the quality of service we provide each and every day.

“This is in stark contrast to the previous inspection in September which left those same staff, leadership team, and governors shocked by the outcome of an inspection that we disputed strongly at the time and left the settings branded inadequate where before they have been nothing less than outstanding.”

The report in September was the first time in Pen Green’s history that it has ever received a grade below outstanding.

However, after the news of Pen Green’s inadequate grade broke, within hours, dozens of Northants Telegraph readers shared stories of how much they value the facility and the staff that work there.

Adam said: “Our parents have themselves been outstanding in these stressful and disheartening times standing by a provision that has always been a joyful enriching place for children and often a life-changing experience for parents. My thanks go out to them for their continued support.

“We were overwhelmed by the immense level of support we received from esteemed colleagues from across the education sector and beyond, locally, nationally and internationally. Many commented that if this has happened to Pen Green then watch out, it could happen to any of us.”

Back in September, the early years provision was marked as inadequate in all four areas – quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and management.

But Ofsted said in its recent report: “Leaders have swiftly and decisively responded to the actions raised at the last inspection, making insightful changes to the organisation of the spaces used by children.

“Furthermore, through a raft of training and development opportunities undertaken by the staff team, the quality of the learning experiences children receive is exemplary.”

Adam said: “The challenge now is to create positive change out of such a traumatic experience. We will be offering our insights and our expertise to Ofsted in an effort to affect real change for early years settings during the inspection process. Making sure that the differences between early years and the mainstream school system is appreciated and that context embraced during inspections. We do not want other settings to unduly suffer the pain our centre has endured since September.

“We also note that Pen Green has a highly experienced team, including past and present Ofsted inspectors, that are well used to fighting for what we believe to be right. This is not the case for many providers and the effect of such a negative inspection may be devastating personally and professionally for many. As such we will be looking for ways of sharing our experience with other providers to help them through similar situations should they arise.”

Pen Green provides a range of services including a maintained nursery, early years spaces, a children’s centre and adult education.

Their September Ofsted report came following cuts made to Pen Green’s funding earlier last year.

Pen Green lost 70 per cent of its funding for the children’s centre and 100 per cent of funding for the integrated services they provide beyond the nursery.

Following this new inspection it is also their aim to continue to lobby for greater recognition for Early Years in local and national government.

Adam said: “Funding is at an all-time low nationally and demand is arguably growing. Pen Green have also had a significant cut to our funding by North Northants Council over the last two years despite our recognition by DfE and others as a centre of excellence.

“All Early Years providers must be funded appropriately or this and future generations of children will miss a huge opportunity for their development. Unless funding is increased, we will never address the recruitment and retention crisis in Early Years and in turn this places a greater burden on primary education and beyond.

“As we have raised before, the inquest following the sad loss of Ruth Perry has highlighted many of the inadequacies of Ofsted and its current approach to inspections. The Education Inspection Framework sets out Ofsted’s principles that apply to inspections for schools and Early Years settings.

“Ofsted did pause school inspections to offer training to inspectors, however this was not the case for Early Years settings. We need more parity across the sector to ensure any changes made to the inspection process are applied fairly and consistently. We witnessed first-hand the significantly traumatic impact of the previous Early Years inspection and the unbearable burden on staff well-being, staff were rocked to the core.

“We are determined that our experiences from these inspections will be used positively to support the Early Years sector. We will ensure that we rigorously lobby MPs, unions, and Central Government to address the whole sector, not just schools.

“We welcome Ofsted, and policy makers in central and local government, to work with us to improve the way Early Years is supported and inspected to deliver the best possible future for all children and their families.”

To read the full report, visit the Ofsted website.