Promoting Fundamental British Values

July 28, 2022 2:45 pm

Over the last couple of weeks, a lot of childminders and nurseries that we work with have been talking about the issue of promoting British values within their childcare setting. There seems to be a lot of confusion surrounding the topic.

Last year the government announced that promoting British values was to become part of the early years curriculum. This means that as part of Ofsted’s inspections, early years providers will be inspected on how these values are promoted within the setting.

According to Department for Education, the fundamental British values can be broken down into the following:

• Democracy
• The rule of law
• Individual liberty
• Mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs

Nursery Resources spoke to Ofsted to clarify the issue.

When will ‘promoting fundamental British values’ be part of the inspection process?

 ‘The new common inspection framework is to be introduced from 1 September 2015. The inspections of early years provisions will be inspected against the common inspection framework. We have piloted some inspections and are currently securing the guidance documents and materials for providers and inspectors. These documents will be published on our website sometime in June 2015.

‘As part of the leadership and management judgement in the common inspection framework, it is likely that inspectors will evaluate the extent to which leaders and managers actively promote British values.

 ‘However, there is currently no reference to this in the Early Years Foundation Stage. We will need to wait for confirmation as to whether the DfE will be amending the Statutory Framework to include reference to this or will be producing any practice guidance around this.

‘Once decisions have been finalised by DfE we will make sure our inspection guidance and documents reflect how the promotion of these fundamental British values will be evaluated.’

Is promoting British values inspected now?

‘[We} can confirm that this does not already form part of the inspection process. Having said that, much of the educational programmes for personal, social and emotional development and understanding the world currently link to the promotion of British values in relation to children in the early years.’

Where can I find out more?

Ofsted assured us that more guidance will be produced.

www.childcare.co.uk has produced some really useful guidance on how you can implement the values into an everyday session, giving real-life examples of how to include the values in your planning. You can read more here.

Teach Nursery magazine has a useful article covering the background to this change – why it’s happening and the issues surrounding it. You can read more here.

Nursery Resources has also launched a British Values poster to help with your teaching – it is designed to provide you with a summary and starting points for how British values work in the EYFS. You can order a glossed version for £3.99 here.