Select committee: Education Committee
Conclusion 14
First Report - Ofsted’s work with schools
Published 29 Jan 2024
Paragraph 58
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)
We are concerned that the lack of relevant phase-specific expertise among inspectors appears to be a widespread problem, particularly in primary schools and in specialist education settings. A high-quality inspection regime must ensure that inspectors have sufficient expertise to be able to accurately assess the quality of provision and offer useful feedback. We welcome the incoming HMCI’s call for more school leaders to move into inspection and hope that this will be reflected in recruitment of HMIs with expertise across all types of school. However, the Committee felt that Ofsted had not provided sufficient evidence to reassure that it was prioritising relevant expertise in all inspection teams.
From: Education Committee, First Report - Ofsted’s work with schools (HC 117), paragraph 58, 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.