This consultation has concluded
Read the full outcome
Improving the way Ofsted
inspects education: report on the responses to the
consultation
Independent well-being impact
assessment of the revised Ofsted framework
Improving the way Ofsted
inspects education: equality impact assessment - response to the
consultation
Detail of outcome
Our response sets out how we'll give parents clearer information
about education inspections, be fairer on education professionals
and help raise standards for all children.
Alongside the response, we've published an updated education
inspection framework and inspection toolkits and operating
guides for:
We've also published:
Original consultation
Summary
We're asking parents, carers, professionals and learners what
they think about our proposals to improve education inspections
and our new report cards for providers.
This consultation ran from
12:01am on 3 February 2025 to 11:59pm on 28 April
2025
Consultation description
We have postponed the publication date for our consultation
response from the summer term to September 2025 due to the
extensive feedback we received. This will give us more time to
analyse responses and carry out further testing of our proposals
to refine and improve the final approach. You can find more
information in our press release.
Are you a parent or carer?
We want to hear what you think about our plans for clearer,
easier-to-read report cards. Watch this video to see an example.
Tell us
what you think
Consultation overview
We want to know what you think about our proposed plans for
inspecting schools and other settings where children and adults
learn. This includes:
- early years
- state-funded schools
- non-association independent schools
- further education and skills (FE and skills)
- initial teacher education (ITE)
In summary, we propose:
-
Report cards – these would give parents
and carers more detailed information than the current
reports, including a new 5-point grading scale to evaluate
more areas of a provider's work and short summaries of what
inspectors found.
-
Education inspection toolkits – this
tool shows providers and inspectors the evaluation areas that
we'll focus inspections on and how we'll assess and grade
providers (scroll down to see our toolkits).
-
Inspection methodology – changes to how
we carry out inspection.
-
Full inspections and monitoring inspections,
state-funded schools – we plan to end ungraded
inspections of state-funded schools and change our monitoring
programmes so that we can check that timely action is taken
to raise standards.
-
Identifying state-funded schools causing
concern – a new approach to how we'll place a
school into a category of concern.
Read our full
plans
Share your views
Respond to the consultation
The Department for Education is consulting separately on proposed
changes to intervention and support in maintained schools and
academies. Share your views.
Supporting documents
Alongside the consultation document, we're also publishing:
-
separate proposed toolkits for early years, state-funded
schools, non-association independent
schools, FE and skills
and ITE
-
an equality impact assessment
-
an implementation
review of the current education inspection framework
-
a list of references highlighting the statutory guidance,
non-statutory guidance, professional standards and research
papers used to inform the proposed toolkits and proposed
inspection methodology
Documents
Improving the way Ofsted
inspects education: consultation document
Improving the way Ofsted
inspects education: equality impact assessment
Early years inspection toolkit:
draft for consultation
School inspection toolkit: draft
for consultation
Independent school inspection
toolkit: draft for consultation
Further education and skills
inspection toolkit: draft for consultation
Initial teacher education (ITE)
inspection toolkit: draft for consultation
Improving the way Ofsted
inspects education: supporting evidence base
