Recommendation 5

There is broad agreement that inspections are not currently long enough to cover the full framework and give an accurate picture of a school’s performance. We accept that, in a context of finite funding, any increase to the length of inspections would require a decrease in their frequency. We are clear that we do not wish to return to the previous exemption for outstanding schools, which stayed in place for too Ofsted’s work with schools 49 long. On balance, we recognise that there is a case to be made for a small reduction in the frequency of inspection in order to increase the value, length and depth of inspections.