Ofsted has reviewed its plans for the inspections of schools,
early years and further education, which were due to begin next
week.
In a statement, Ofsted said: In light of a change in emphasis
from the government and clear advice to ‘act as if you have the
virus’ over the next few weeks, we have decided that all planned
inspection activity will be undertaken remotely until after the
February half term.
We have sought regular advice from Public Health England and we
remain satisfied that our planned on-site activity would be safe
and appropriate under current restrictions. However, the new
government messages and the practical challenges of deploying
inspectors across England have prompted this change.
Remote inspections of schools and further education providers
will begin from the 25th January, with a particular focus on how
well children and learners are being educated remotely. We will
inspect schools rated ‘inadequate’ or ‘requires improvement’ as
planned, but we will also follow up on complaints raised by
parents across all grades of school in order to resolve issues.
As these inspections will not involve an on-site visit, they will
be unable to cover the full scope of a monitoring inspection. We
will publish details of the inspection process shortly.
We will continue to undertake on-site inspections if we have
immediate concerns - for example about safeguarding, the
leadership of a school, or a failure to provide education to
children.
It is not possible to provide the necessary level of assurance of
early years providers without an on-site inspection of the
premises, so early years assurance visits will be paused until
after the February half term.
We will continue with our vital regulatory work in early years
and children’s social care. This work will sometimes require
on-site visits, which will be risk-assessed based on the nature
of the premises and the urgency of the work.
