School inspections and industrial action (latest)

Published 24 January 2023

Last updated 6 March 2023 — See all updates

We know that the ongoing teaching union strikes will have an impact on schools and the full impact might not be known until the day of the strike.

We want to maintain school inspection activity as far as possible, while responding sensitively to local circumstances. So we will schedule school inspection notifications and on-site inspections to avoid strike days.

To avoid the 2-day national strike on Wednesday 15 and Thursday 16 March, we will notify schools on Friday 10 March, for inspections taking place on Monday 13 and Tuesday 14 March.

We also have our usual deferral policy in place. Any deferral requests made as a result of strike action will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Our inspections of social care, further education and skills and early years providers will continue as planned.