FE colleges, universities and training providers will have all four sub-judgments displayed alongside overall effectiveness grades on Ofsted’s website for the first time, following an update to schools’ profiles earlier this year.
As of today, sub-judgments like quality of education, leadership and management and apprenticeships are now visible for further education settings for all graded inspections from September 2019.
Until now, only overall effectiveness was visible on the front page of an organisation’s page on Ofsted’s website.
The move comes four months after the watchdog made the same change to schools’ profiles, in new chief inspector Martyn Oliver’s bid to give parents a more “rounded, contextual picture” Ofsted’s evaluation of performance.
At the time, Ofsted said it excluded post-16 providers from the move because updating every education providers’ profile at once was a large and complex technical change.
The announcement also comes shortly after Ofsted responded to its “Big Listen” consultation, which confirmed it will scrap single-phrase headline grades with immediate effect for schools.
However, this change will also exclude FE and training providers until a future date due to the “time and capacity” needed.
It is likely that overall headline grades will not be removed for the FE sector until Labour’s proposed “report cards” replace them in September 205.
Association of Employment and Learning Providers chief executive Ben Rowland had a lukewarm reaction to the scrapping of Ofsted’s single-phrase judgments in his newsletter to members this week.
He said that while the change lifts the threat of a “professionally stigmatising over-simplified ‘label’,” the Department for Education and mayoral combined authorities will continue to use Ofsted grades as trigger points for “snap or (even worse) automated decisions” for all types of training providers.
Rowland called Ofsted’s future introduction of report cards and inspection frameworks that would be specific to FE and skills “a potentially much more positive development”.
An Ofsted spokesperson said: “We are pleased to now be able to display the sub-judgments for all [further education and skills] providers who have had a graded inspection since September 2019.
“It will allow parents and learners to see a broader picture of the provision at first glance on our website.”
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