evince blog

I recently received some information through from the Ofsted Project Manager working with the ISPP group that I thought might be useful to share with you all - so you have some advance notice of the things to come, and changes in how you receive Ofsted information.  Please note that this is for your information only.  As we find out more and get nearer to the ISPP testing, then we shall communicate out what we know.

•1.1          ISPP Provider Extract

•1.1.1          Summary - The Techy Bit!

This interface is used to transfer data from the Ofsted register of childcare providers to the Local Authories, ensuring all the necessary data to meet their regulatory responsibilities is present in the XML extract.

At regular intervals (daily) an extract file will be produced for each local authority in England, and available for collection using the SOAP API. This XML file will contain the details of each Early Years provision located within the local authority’s boundaries.  The local authority will not receive details of registrations located within other local authorities.

The data will be a complete snapshot extract rather than a set of changes in line with the current extract provided by Ofsted for the Children’s Information Service (CIS).

Extracts will be provided at regular intervals (daily) regardless of how often local authorities choose to retrieve the information. In order to allow for less frequent retrieval, any records that have changed to an ‘inactive’ status and therefore to be removed from the extract will be included in the extract file for sixty days after the change (e.g. resignation or cancellation) has occurred.

The registration status will be one of four values that can go through the following state changes:

Ofsted will provide a secure web service to Local Authorities and their authorised agents (in this case Opp Links). The request described below will initiate a response containing all data for a single LA contained in an XML blob. The XML will contain a full set of records for a single LA that Ofsted will refresh on a daily basis.

How Opp Links will help you to manage the change

If you have purchased the Quality Manager either when you purchased evince or separately, then you will be able to manage the Ofsted daily data transfer.  If you have not purchased Quality Manager, then the Ofsted feed will automatically feed straight into the evince system. 

Important things to note at this point

There will be no Weblink facility from the end of Sept 09 (or possibly before - will depend on the success of the Ofsted testing)

The Ofsted Data will come to you in the form of an xml feed (all data)

The data will not be displayed in new and changed - you will just receive all the data

Use Quality Manager to manage your Ofsted data

The Ofsted feed will be daily