Analysis

Leaders want say in Ofsted’s move to narrative inspection judgments

Ofsted’s decision to scrap single-phrase judgments for social care and early years providers draws support from sectors lacking trust in the inspectorate but needs further consultation to ensure success, experts say.
Single-phrase judgments for children’s services and early years will also go, following the decision to scrap them for schools - YUROLAITSALBERT/ADOBE STOCK

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson announced plans in September to scrap the use of single-phrase ratings for state schools “with immediate effect”.

Instead, those inspected during the next academic year will be graded on areas including the quality of education, behaviour, personal development and leadership seen by inspectors ahead of the introduction of in-depth report cards from September 2025.

Phillipson describes the single-phrase system – which sees schools, early years settings and the work of children’s services departments, among others, rated “outstanding”, “good”, “requires improvement to be good” or “inadequate” – as “low information for parents and high stakes for schools”.

In line with this move, Ofsted’s national director of social care Yvette Stanley confirmed to CYP Now that single-phrase judgments for children’s services and early years inspections will also go, but with a caveat. “We’re travelling in the same direction but we might need to go at a different pace,” she says.

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