Ofsted will trial “a new approach to inspections” ahead of a consultation on its new inspection framework, which is likely to include longer notice periods for providers and “proportionate” inspection teams.
A “small number of volunteer schools” have been selected to “informally test” a revised inspection model from the start of the spring term. Findings from these informal pilots will then inform Ofsted’s consultation on a new inspection framework, expected later in January.
Further education and skills settings will also get to trial the inspectorate’s new approach, but not until “later in the term” once its proposals have been published.
Ofsted has not set out what will be different in those early informal pilots in volunteer schools.
A new inspection framework has been on the cards since chief inspector Martyn Oliver’s Big Listen exercise. Its next iteration is likely to diverge from Ofsted’s current model which places all education provision under one governing inspection framework.
Oliver told FE Week in September that a new framework for FE and skills inspections would “better tailor our inspections to the diverse range of provision in the sector.”
“This means the framework needs to work as well for classroom-focused qualifications as it does for employer-led vocational and technical training,” he said at the time.
Once next year’s consultation has closed, Ofsted has promised more pilot inspections to test its final proposals with a number of volunteer providers. It will also run a series of events to inform the sector of its new approach.
This will come as Ofsted prepares to finally abandon single-word overall effectiveness judgments in the FE and skills sector and replace its inspection reports with provider “report cards” in September 2025.
Despite the education secretary describing single-word headline judgments as “reductive” and “low information, high stakes”, they have remained in place for FE and skills inspections. They were removed for school inspections in September, but Ofsted said it needed more time to remove them from FE inspections because “FE is a little more complicated.”
Alongside dropping the headline overall effectiveness grade and new proposed “report cards”, next year’s pilots could also include longer notice periods.
Paul Joyce, Ofsted’s deputy director for FE and skills, told the AELP autumn conference in November that notice periods of inspections featured heavily in the sector’s response to the Big Listen.
Joyce said: “You wanted longer notice periods for providers, and we’ve listened. We’ve heard that, and we’ll respond in due course.”
Ofsted’s Big Listen report card
Ofsted has also published its first “monitoring report” detailing progress towards 132 actions from the Big Listen and Dame Christine Gilbert’s review of the inspectorate’s response to the death of headteacher Ruth Perry. It will be updated after every Ofsted board meeting.
So far, just under a third (42) of the 132 actions have been completed.
One of its objectives for reform is to “improve our inspection processes to – as far as possible – reduce the anxiety of inspection while always putting children first.”
For FE and skills providers, Ofsted said the progress it has made on this includes updating the inspection handbook in September to clarify how personal development and behaviour and attitude judgments are made.
It adds, under “update on progress,” that the sector will be consulted on changes to inspection notice periods and the size of inspection teams to “reduce the burden” on FE and skills providers.
Oliver, said: “Our response to the Big Listen set out our determination to retain the confidence of children, their parents and carers, and to earn back the trust of the dedicated professionals working hard to improve children’s life chances.
“I’m pleased to now be publishing this first monitoring report, which describes all the work we are doing to improve our culture and practices. I hope that it shows that we are willing to listen, accept challenge, and take action where it’s needed.
“I am also delighted that the work to trial our new inspection approach begins in early January. Feedback from these trials, and from our soon-to-be-launched consultation, will shape and improve our proposals.”
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