Welcome to the first edition of Ofsted News in 2009. This is going to be an important year for Ofsted, with significant changes planned for the way we inspect and regulate. I want to use this column to share these with you and to explain some of the thinking behind these developments.

A look at the contents list of this magazine serves to illustrate the breadth of Ofsted’s remit. We cover a wide range of educational and children’s provision: from childminders, to adult learning and skills providers, from schools to teacher training colleges. This brings some great benefits. We can now report and promote good practice from within specific services and across them. And we can really focus on individuals rather than institutions, looking at the support offered to children in disadvantaged circumstances, for example, across all the services working to improve their lives.