Management 3 min read Updated October 2026
Ready for an inspection every day, not just the week before
In many institutions the week before a visit or inspection becomes a week of catching up: missing records, plans that weren’t updated, reports built after the fact. It’s exhausting, and it shows. This guide suggests the opposite: keep information in order as part of daily work, so an inspection is just another day. Requirements vary between institutions and authorities, so this guide is about habits, not a list of requirements.
1. Why “tidying up before” doesn’t work
Catching up after the fact creates three problems. It takes time from working with students in exactly the busiest week. It produces less accurate records, because they’re written from memory. And it’s easy to spot: dozens of notes written on the same day, in the same wording.
An institution that records in real time doesn’t need to prepare anything. It needs to know where everything is.
2. What should be available at any moment
The exact list depends on who is visiting and the type of institution. But in most cases the questions repeat, and the answers should be available without searching.
| Area | What should be available |
|---|
| Attendance | A report for every group for every day, who was out and on which approval. |
| Exits | Every exit approval: who approved it, when the student left, when they returned. |
| Incidents | Incident reports, who was informed, and what was done afterwards. |
| Personal plans | Current goals for every student, and the progress. |
| Staff | Who works here, in what role, and what permissions they have. |
| Procedures | The current version of every procedure, and when it was updated. |
3. Habits that keep it that way
Readiness is the result of a few daily and weekly habits, not a one-off effort.
- Record during the same shift, not at the end of the week.
- One place for each type of information, not spreadsheets, notebooks and groups in parallel.
- An owner for every area: who checks attendance is complete, who checks plans are updated.
- Close gaps fast: a report missing today is completed tomorrow, not in a month.
4. A half-hour monthly check
Once a month, the director or someone she appoints goes through a small sample, the way an outside inspector would. The goal is to find gaps while they’re still easy to close.
01Pick a sampleThree random students from two different groups.
02Check continuityIs there an attendance report for every day of the month? Does every exit include an approval and a return?
03Check incidentsIs every incident recorded, including who was informed and what was done afterwards?
04Check plansWas the personal plan updated in the last month, and does it have tasks with owners?
05Record findingsWhat’s missing, who will close it, and by when. Next month, check these gaps first.
5. When you find a gap
A gap you find is an opportunity, not a blame. Complete what you can, and record explicitly when the completion was done. Records written after the fact but presented as if written at the time damage the credibility of everything else.
Rules for completing records
- State the date of writing, not only the date of the event.
- Write only what is known, and when something isn’t known, say so.
- Check why the gap happened: workload, an unclear procedure, an inconvenient tool. And fix the cause.
Common mistakes
- A week of catching up before every visit.
- Records scattered across spreadsheets, notebooks and WhatsApp groups.
- Procedures that exist only in an old version, or only in someone’s head.
- Permissions of staff who left that stay open.
- Records completed after the fact but presented as if written at the time.
Want to see attendance, incidents and personal plans available at any moment, without preparing special reports before a visit? We’ll show it on your own institution.
