Select committee: Education Committee
Conclusion 11
First Report - Ofsted’s work with schools
Published 29 Jan 2024
Paragraph 46
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 ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
The short timeframe of inspections does not allow for in-depth engagement with different groups in the inspection process. While we do not believe that Ofsted should introduce feedback meetings with parents following an inspection, there is a case to be made for improving the ways in which the inspectorate engages with different groups, as long as this does not give undue weight to small but vocal groups of parents or pupils. Better engagement outside the inspection process would also be highly valuable and would support Ofsted to better assess which schools are in most urgent need of inspection. We are also concerned at the reduction in focus on school governance in Ofsted reports.
From: Education Committee, First Report - Ofsted’s work with schools (HC 117), paragraph 46, 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.