Former chief inspector Dame Christine Gilbert is set to be appointed as the new chair of Ofsted, FE Week’s sister title Schools Week understands.
Gilbert, who served as chief inspector of Ofsted between 2006 and 2011, last year led the independent review into the watchdog’s response to the death of headteacher Ruth Perry.
FE Week also understands Ofsted will now delay publishing its consultation response until the start of September – rather than in the summer as originally planned.
Ofsted had mulled pushing back inspections, but decided to maintain rolling out new report cards in November.
But delaying the consultation response – which will outline formalise inspection plans – means education providers will have even less time to see how inspections work before they face being inspected – a move likely to face strong criticism from unions.
Gilbert’s appointment is likely to be welcomed. Her damning report, published in September, found Ofsted’s response to Perry’s suicide was “defensive and complacent”.
Her appointment will begin on September 1, 2025 and will be for a period of three years. She will be paid £55,000 a year for working two days a week in the role.
Gilbert said: “It’s a privilege to accept this appointment as chair of Ofsted. I’m very much looking forward to supporting Sir Martyn Oliver and Ofsted in their determination to raise standards, increase opportunities and improve lives.”
Gilbert called for Ofsted board to be ‘strengthened’
Gilbert made a string of recommendations for Ofsted. The watchdog is currently carrying out a widespread overhaul of the way it carries out inspections.
She found the Ofsted board “had little or no involvement in determining the strategy for dealing with the crisis and communicating to the media and stakeholders”.
The board’s role “appears curiously limited, apparently leaving some of Ofsted’s most critical activities outside of its control”, she said.
“This degree of autonomy and entitlement for HMCI does not make for effective governance.”
Gilbert urged Ofsted to review its governance framework to “strengthen the role of the board with the aim of establishing constructive challenge to support Ofsted in its learning and reform”.
The chair role was previously held by Dame Christine Ryan, who left at the end of March following four-and-a-half years.
Star Academies chief executive Sir Hamid Patel has since been serving as interim Ofsted chair.
Gilbert previously spent 18 years working in schools as a teacher and headteachers. She has also served as director of education at Harrow council and at Tower Hamlets council, where she “led the dramatic turnaround in performance and quality of local schools” and rose to the role of chief executive.
She is also chair of the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), and has been a visiting professor at UCL Institute of Education for more than a decade.
Gilbert has led and taken part in several service reviews, mostly in education but also including Baroness Casey’s damning 2023 review of the Metropolitan Police.
She was made a dame in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2022.
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