Select committee: Education Committee
Recommendation 4
First Report - Ofsted’s work with schools
Published 29 Jan 2024
Paragraph 17
Addressed to Department for Education
Education Committee Ofsted’s work with schools All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
The serious nature of a Prevention of Future Deaths report will not be lost on the new HMCI. We expect him to make every effort to address the coroner’s report fully. Ofsted should review the seven areas of concern set out in the coroner’s report following the inquest into the death of Ruth Perry and put in place changes to ensure that each of these have been addressed as a matter of urgency. They must monitor the impact of the changes they have already put in place and commit to making further changes if these have not been shown to have a meaningful impact. Going forward we expect HMCI to report to this Committee on a six-monthly basis on Ofsted’s progress in addressing these significant concerns.
From: Education Committee, First Report - Ofsted’s work with schools (HC 117), paragraph 17, 29 January 2024
Government response
Third Special Report - Ofsted’s work with schools: Government Response to the Committee’s First Report
The government responded to the whole report on 25 April 2024 (deadline 29 March 2024).
Second Special Report - Ofsted’s work with schools: Ofsted response to the Committee’s First Report
Published 11 March 2024.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.Ofsted says it has already acted on some recommendations, will explore most others through its 'Big Listen' consultation, and does not intend to action Recommendation 11.
- Ofsted reports action already taken, including mental health awareness training for all lead inspectors of schools and further education and skills, and a new policy allowing a school inspection to be paused. It says the whole inspection and regulatory workforce will complete the training before the end of March 2024.
- On inspection frequency and notice periods, it says the current five-year interval is set in legislation and gives reassurance to parents. It is "happy to consider potential changes to our notice periods" through the Big Listen, but "cannot immediately see how to implement different notice periods fairly".
- It does not intend to action Recommendation 11, an independent assessment of factors affecting retention of experienced HMIs, because it does not believe this is "a good use of public money".
- It commits to providing percentages of complaints per inspection remit from 2024-25, and intends to publish its evaluation of the education inspection framework as part of its response to the Big Listen. It says several other recommendations are matters for the DfE.