Minister of State for Schools (): The Office for Standards in
Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted), has today
announced a number of changes to its inspection process in
England.
Ofsted will be clear that, following the completion of a school
inspection, it is for the head teacher to decide which
colleagues, or others, they share their provisional inspection
outcome with, prior to the publication of the inspection report.
As provisional outcomes can sometimes change these should not be
published or shared with parents until finalised.
From September, when discussing a school’s areas of weakness,
inspection reports will normally refer to ‘the school’, rather
than to individuals. Contextual information at the end of reports
will list all those with responsibility for the school.
Ofsted has today set out more information for schools on the
broad timing of their next inspection. Schools will continue to
receive one day’s notice of an inspection, but will now have more
clarity about the year in which they are likely to be inspected.
This will be of particular benefit to outstanding schools that
were previously exempt from routine inspection.
Inspectors will now return more quickly (within 3 months) to
schools graded inadequate overall due to ineffective
safeguarding, but where all other judgements were good or better.
If a school has been able to resolve the safeguarding concerns it
is likely to see its overall grade improve. The Secretary of
State will then be able to decide whether to revoke any academy
order applying to the school, or withdraw any warning notice
issued to an academy Where inspectors are due to return to a
school in these circumstances, the timeframe for the
implementation of an academy order will allow for reinspection
and for the Secretary of State to revoke the order where the
grade improves.
From September, Ofsted will provide schools with greater clarity
about the threshold for what constitutes ineffective safeguarding
through its inspection handbook and a range of other mechanisms.
Inspectors will also describe ineffective safeguarding more
clearly in inspection reports.
Ofsted has today launched a formal consultation on changes to its
complaints system.
The Government is today confirming a significant expansion of its
wellbeing support programme for school leaders. This will see a
doubling of places available for this year, and will enable an
additional 500 school leaders to access expert supervision and
counselling.
