Step 1
Judgement
The manager looks at one evaluation area and slides the bead to where they honestly believe their setting sits. Not against a target. Not for an audience. Just an honest first position on the five-point scale.
Aligned to the new Ofsted Early Years Toolkit. See how
Every setting.
One clear picture.
The Nursery Group Dashboard gives every setting in your group a structured, Ofsted-aligned self-evaluation and improvement plan — and gives you a live, group-wide dashboard showing exactly where every setting stands. Ofsted quality, plus the commercial and operational measures that matter to your group.
Know your group. Really know it.
Empower your nursery managers.
Inform your group leaders.
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A living self-evaluation and improvement plan for every setting
- Each leadership team gets a structured, evidence-based improvement plan that replaces separate documents and updates in real time as the setting progresses.
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Built on the Ofsted Early Years Toolkit
- Every setting self-evaluates against the exact criteria Ofsted will use — the same areas, the same scale, the same language. No surprises on the day. Just confidence.
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Your group dashboard builds itself
- As each setting works through their self-evaluation and planning, your panoramic view updates automatically. No chasing. No compiling. No reports written upwards.
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Your group, your criteria
- Evaluate against Ofsted, and against whatever else matters to your group — occupancy, workforce, reputation, your own vision and values. Your framework, built on our structure.
Watch the Overview
Everything you need to know, in five minutes.
A walkthrough of how the Nursery Group Dashboard works for your settings, your group, and your leaders — from setting evaluation through to the live group-wide dashboard.
The Problem
The insight exists.
The problem is bringing it together.
In most settings, self-evaluation gets written, filed, and forgotten. Improvement plans live in different formats and varying degrees of rigour. Nobody is doing this badly on purpose — they're just busy running a setting.
In most groups, the result is a picture that doesn't quite add up. Different settings, different approaches, different language. You can't compare what isn't comparable. Blind spots stay invisible until they become problems.
And this is only the Ofsted picture. Occupancy, reviews, funded hours viability — the commercial picture lives in spreadsheets, email threads, and the head of an area manager who has been meaning to write it up. Two pictures. Both partial. Neither connected.
The Solution
The clearest picture of your group you have ever had.
In every setting, the evaluation finally gets done properly. A structured, supported process. Aligned to the new Ofsted Early Years Toolkit. Useful for the leadership team, not another compliance exercise. So leaders actually engage with it — for themselves, not for head office.
In every group, the dashboard builds itself from that work. Every setting on the same framework. Every judgement backed by evidence. One live, panoramic view where comparisons mean something and blind spots become visible long before they become urgent.
And the commercial picture sits right alongside it. Occupancy, workforce, reputation — whatever your group watches, measured on the same scale, built from the same process. Two pictures. One framework. Finally connected.
Ten benefits. At a glance.
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1
Every setting on the same framework — comparisons finally mean something.
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2
The dashboard builds itself — no chasing, no compiling, no reports written upwards.
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3
Every evaluation built on honest insight — not numbers performed for head office.
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4
Settings are always inspection ready — aligned to the new Ofsted Early Years Toolkit.
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5
Every judgement backed by evidence, analysis, and a specific action plan.
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6
Leaders engage willingly — because it works for them, not just the group.
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7
Spot excellence across your group and replicate it where it's needed most.
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8
Identify where a setting needs support — long before it becomes urgent.
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9
Your framework, your criteria — Ofsted quality plus whatever your group watches.
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10
It scales — from two settings to two hundred, the value never changes.
How It Works
It works in two stages — what the setting does, and what the group sees.
Stage 1
Each setting completes their self-evaluation and improvement plan.
Each leadership team evaluates their setting against the Ofsted Early Years Toolkit and any further areas your group has chosen to include — making honest judgements, gathering evidence, identifying what is helping and hindering, and building a focused improvement plan. (The five steps a manager works through for every area are shown in detail below.)
What the setting manager gets
A structured, supported process to evaluate their nursery and build a genuine improvement plan — replacing scattered self-evaluations with something they actually want to engage with.
- A living self-evaluation and improvement plan in one place.
- Aligned to the exact criteria Ofsted will use.
- Genuinely useful, not another compliance exercise.
Stage 2
Group leaders access a dashboard that has built itself.
As each setting completes its evaluation, those individual assessments combine automatically into your group-wide Nursery Group Dashboard. No chasing. No compiling. No extra work from anyone. Click into any setting in any evaluation area and you see the full picture behind it — the evidence, the analysis, and the action plan. Not just where every setting stands, but why, and what is being done about it.
What the group leader gets
A live, panoramic dashboard combining every setting's evaluation automatically — no chasing, no compiling, no extra work from anyone. Ofsted quality alongside the commercial and operational priorities your group runs on.
- Every setting visible in one dashboard.
- Ofsted view and group view, side by side.
- Built from honest evaluation, not reports written upwards.
The five-step method.
Why nursery leaders love the process.
It's theirs — evaluating honestly for themselves, not performing for head office. Every judgement starts with the manager's own view, then gets tested against Ofsted's own criteria. And every evaluation ends with a specific action plan — which means the work is never wasted.
Step 2
Criteria
Now the manager opens the grade descriptors — taken directly from the Ofsted Early Years Inspection Toolkit for the Ofsted areas, or from your group's own criteria for everything else. They review the language against their judgement, and move the bead if they need to. This is where the honest view meets the formal standard.
Step 3
Evidence
The manager justifies their position with real evidence — written commentary, attached documents, links to files. Anything that supports the position they have taken. When a group leader later clicks into this setting, this is what they see: the honest story behind the number.
Step 4
Analysis
The manager identifies what is helping the setting perform at this level, and what is hindering it from going further. Green on the left. Red on the right. The bead sits between them, held in place by the balance. This is the step no data dashboard can replicate — professional judgement about what is actually going on.
Step 5
Actions
Every hindering factor becomes a specific action. What will be done. Who will do it. What success will look like. When it will be delivered. Progress tracked. The self-evaluation is not a document that gets written and filed. It is a live improvement plan that updates as the setting progresses.
Built on the Ofsted toolkit.
Extended to cover what your group cares about.
Ofsted's new Early Years Toolkit was designed for more than inspection. As Ofsted themselves say:
"It can also be used by leaders to support self-evaluation and continuous improvement."
That is precisely what iAbacus does — built on the same toolkit, the same areas, the same scale, the same language. So when your settings evaluate using iAbacus, they are working against the exact criteria an inspector will use.
And then it goes further.
Ofsted evaluates how well a setting cares for and educates children. Running a nursery group means watching a second set of things — occupancy, workforce, reputation, and whatever else your group decides matters. iAbacus lets your group bring its own criteria, alongside the Ofsted areas, evaluated by the same managers using the same process.
The result is a single, live picture of every setting in your group — the quality of the provision that Ofsted inspects, and whatever else your group has chosen to watch.
What's Included
A complete, fully supported solution — for every setting in your group.
The Nursery Group Dashboard is not software you purchase and figure out. It is a solution we deliver with you. Every setting gets everything they need to evaluate honestly, plan strategically, and improve with confidence. Your group gets the dashboard that builds from that work.
For every setting
- Access to iAbacus
- A setting self-evaluation and improvement plan aligned to the new Ofsted Early Years Toolkit.
- Personalised onboarding workshop
- For the leadership team, plus 12 months of one-to-one support.
- PDF reports and action plans
- Ideal for parents, owners, pre-inspection conversations, and the Ofsted planning call.
For your group
- Live group-wide Nursery Group Dashboard
- Aligned to the new Ofsted Early Years Toolkit, extended to cover whatever else your group wants to evaluate.
- Workshop with your central team
- On using the dashboard to gather deep insights.
- PDF reports
- Professional group-wide overviews ready for board meetings, investor updates, and regional managers.
Used by thousands of educators and leaders for over a decade.
"At strategic board level we use it to look at strengths and weaknesses across all our settings."
"The most straightforward and simple improvement tool I have come across in the last 10 years."
"Because it's not complicated everybody gets it. Not having to explain it makes it easy to share."
"It enabled us to make a judgement about ourselves against the Ofsted criteria, provide evidence for this, and then formulate an action plan to move forward in each of the key areas."
"It's a blessed relief from wading through pages of Word document plans."
"It was a revelation! Lo and behold, I only had to look at it to know what it is all about."
Try it in one setting — completely free.
We are confident that once a manager in your group has been through the process and your central team has seen the dashboard, the decision will make itself.
Any nursery group can trial the complete Nursery Group Dashboard solution in one setting at no cost. The full solution — onboarding, support, access to iAbacus, and your live group dashboard from day one. Not a limited version. Not a self-guided walkthrough.
There is no obligation, no contract, and no catch.
Simple, transparent pricing
Whether you lead two settings or two hundred, the Nursery Group Dashboard works for your group. Smaller groups benefit from an immediately coherent picture across their settings. Larger groups benefit from the economy of scale — and from the consistency that comes with every setting evaluating against the same framework.
Pricing is tailored to your group — based on the number of settings, the length of subscription, and how you want to roll it out. We offer multi-setting and multi-year discounts, and we are always happy to discuss what works best for your context.
Get in touch and we will put together a quote that is right for your group.
Ready to see your group clearly?
Or simply call us on 0115 929 3419. We are real people who understand your world, and we would love to talk it through.
From the iAbacus blog
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