Ofsted is consulting on reforms to inspections for schools, early years settings and further education providers including new “report cards”.
The move follows the decision to scrap single-phrase judgments and comes amid plans to change the regulator's approach to inspection.
Ofsted said the new system would be tailored to different types of provider and have a focus on ensuring the needs of the most disadvantaged children were being met.
Meanwhile report cards are designed to strike a balance between providing information and reducing pressure on settings.
“The report card will replace the simplistic overall judgment with a suite of grades, giving parents much more detail and better identifying the areas for improvement for a school, early years or further education provider,” said chief inspector Sir Martyn Oliver.
But some fear they will make things more complicated.
Sam Freedman, senior fellow at the Institute for Government, said he was concerned the new system would be confusing for parents.
“I am worried that this makes it harder for Ofsted to tackle its real issue which is reliability and consistency of inspection,” he told the House of Commons education committee.
Meanwhile, education unions say the proposals fail to address their concerns about high-stakes inspections and the impact on head teachers and other staff.
“It's our view that this will make things worse, not better,” said general secretary of the National Education Union Daniel Kebede.
The consultation runs until 28 April with findings due to be reported in the summer. Here are the main proposals:
1 REPORT CARDS ASSESS MULTIPLE AREAS
Under the proposed new system, settings will be assessed for a range of categories. State and independent schools will be assessed on nine areas: leadership and governance, curriculum, developing teaching, achievement, behaviour and attitudes, attendance, personal development and wellbeing, inclusion and safeguarding.
Early years provision and sixth forms in schools will have their own categories so a school could have 11 ratings in total.
Ofsted said its Big Listen exercise showed both parents and professionals were strongly in favour of getting rid of overall inspection grades.
Parents were keen to see assessment of a wider range of categories while professionals leaned towards narrative descriptions of performance.
“Our proposals aim to bring both preferences together,” says the consultation document.
2 NEW TRAFFIC LIGHT RATINGS
Nearly all the new areas will be rated using a five-point traffic light system from red – causing concern – through to dark green – exemplary.
Ofsted did consider other options including simply identifying whether a school was “causing concern” or not and a three-point scale, which was deemed “too limited”. The idea of a four-point scale felt too similar to the current system while a seven-point scale was judged “unnecessarily complicated”.
Safeguarding will be treated slightly differently in that it will be graded as “met” or “not met”.
“This is because we expect providers to be both compliant with statutory requirements and instil an open and positive culture around safeguarding,” says the consultation. “Therefore, providers are either doing everything they can to keep children and learners safe, or they are not.”
The grades for each area will be accompanied by longer descriptions of what inspectors have found.
3 REPORTS TO INCLUDE MORE CONTEXT
Ofsted says it will include more contextual information and data in inspections and inspection reports.
“Inspectors have always considered information about the provider, its children and learners’ characteristics and their outcomes,” says the consultation. “We want to go further by using local area data to support our inspections.”
Information about the provider and local area will be summarised alongside the report card. This will include characteristics of the children such as those who are disadvantaged or with SEND, performance data for all children, absence and attendance rates, and information about local levels of deprivation and the community and the availability and quality of other education and care provision.
4 OFSTED PROMISES CLEAR STANDARDS
As part of the new regime, Ofsted will develop a series of education inspection “toolkits” that will contain the standards they will inspect against. The regulator said its aim was to “take any mystery out of inspection”. It has already started publishing training materials for inspectors as part of efforts to improve transparency.
There will be separate toolkits for early years, state-funded schools, non-association independent schools, further education and skills, and initial teacher education, which can be viewed as part of the consultation.
“The toolkits describe the quality we would expect to see at each point on the scale,” says the consultation.
They will also set out how providers will be held to account for ensuring inclusive education. “This includes strong outcomes for disadvantaged pupils, those with SEND and those who leaders have identified as being particularly vulnerable,” says the consultation.
5 BEST PRACTICE WILL BE SHARED
Where exemplary practice is identified then the idea is to share this more widely with the sector so other settings benefit.
Where inspectors come across what they consider to be exemplary work, they will make recommendations to a “national quality and consistency panel” which will confirm whether or not the top rating is justified.
The panel will consider factors such as how well practice is embedded into the work of the provider and sustained over time and whether it is making a “tangible difference” to children's development and learning.
Settings that achieve “exemplary” ratings will be invited to share short case studies of their work through the Ofsted Academy.
6 INCREASED MONITORING FOR SOME
By law, Ofsted is required to identify state-funded schools that are causing concern. Schools with widespread issues can be placed in “special measures” while those with some specific issues will be categorised as “requires significant improvement”.
The consultation sets out how these schools will be identified.
Schools that require significant improvement will get five monitoring visits within 18 months unless issues are resolved sooner.
Those in special measures will get six monitoring visits within 24 months unless issues are resolved.
Meanwhile, all schools that have at least one area graded amber or “attention needed” will have a monitoring visit focusing on that area or areas. This may result in their report card being updated.
7 CHANGES TO HOW INSPECTIONS FEEL
Ofsted says it wants to change “both how inspection looks and feels” especially when it comes to the way inspectors interact with professionals. “Professional dialogue between inspectors and leaders will be a priority,” says the consultation. “We will ask every provider to nominate a senior member of staff to work closely with the inspector or inspection team throughout the inspection. This will make sure leaders are fully included in the inspection process and that they are informed about emerging evidence.”
From November this year, all inspections will be “full” inspections and Ofsted will no longer do ungraded inspections. “This will simplify inspection: every school will know exactly what kind of inspection it will receive and how often,” says the consultation.
INSPECTION SHORTS
SOCIAL CARE
Professionals, children, young people and families have until 23 March to complete Ofsted's annual social care surveys and share their experiences of provision. The surveys are sent to all registered social care providers including children's homes, fostering and adoption agencies and supported accommodation. Ofsted said the findings for individual settings can inform inspections including bringing them forward.
YOUTH JUSTICE
Bath and North East Somerset Youth Justice Service has been rated “good” following an inspection by HM Inspectorate of Probation. Inspectors found children who came to the service “can expect to receive a strong offer of support”. The report praises “strong and impactful” work with young people whose cases went to court. However, it found assessment of those dealt with outside the courts needed to be strengthened.
HEALTH
Some women were moved to sofa beds after giving birth at Broomfield Hospital in Essex due to a lack of capacity, an inspection report found. Maternity services at the hospital were rated “inadequate” and placed in special measures after an inspection in March 2024. Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspectors reported improvements had been made when they visited again in July but found bed capacity was still a problem. They upgraded the department's rating to “requires improvement” but said it would remain in special measures.
EDUCATION
Partners in Herefordshire have been told to make improvements to services for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities following an area inspection by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission. Families had varying experiences with about half of parents and carers who took part in the survey reporting their child got the right help and support in school or college and only a few saying this was the case with social care and health teams. Local agencies were told to do more to reduce waiting times for health services and to ensure all families were well-informed about the support available.
SOCIAL CARE
Inspectors who visited children's services at Essex County Council have praised the quality of social work with families where children are at risk of harm. A focused inspection in January found practitioners spent time building trusting relationships with children, parents and other relatives and many had been supported to make changes to allow children to safely remain within family networks. However, where parents’ progress was slow they found some cases should have been reviewed earlier.
