Ofsted makes £2.3m saving on inspections

Minutes of a board-level meeting held on 10 February reveal that the inspectorate predicted an underspend of £2.3m on inspection costs for the financial year 2015/16.

The document states that the underspend has, “in part”, resulted from a “reduction in inspection volumes”, citing shortfalls against targets for social care inspections, early years inspections, and school inspections.

It also reveals that Ofsted has put in place “mitigating actions” for 2016/17 in relation to the shortfalls in early years and social care inspections.

One reason for the drop in number of inspections being carried out is the fact that the government has suspended inspections of children’s centres.

Announcing the decision last September, childcare minister Sam Gyimah said inspections would be suspended “on a short-term basis”, pending the outcome of the consultation on the future of children’s centres, which was due to launch in the autumn. The consultation was subsequently delayed and is now due to take place in the summer.

CYP Now has previously reported on concerns within the early years sector over the potential safety implications of the ongoing suspension of Ofsted inspections of children's centres.

Ofsted is also currently well behind target to complete its three-year cycle of children’s services department inspections through the single inspection framework. It had been due to complete them by November 2016, but this has now been extended to December 2017.

Ofsted’s national director for social care, Eleanor Schooling, has previously said that the intensity of the inspection process had meant that the programme was taking longer to complete than expected.

The board meeting minutes also said there was an expected shortfall in school inspections compared with the target identified in Ofsted's corporate plan.

News of the underspend on inspections comes amid continuing financial pressure on Ofsted. In December it emerged that the regulator will have to cut its budget by a quarter over the next four years as a result of the government Spending Review.

The inspectorate was told by the Department for Education to make savings of £38m over the four-year period to 2019/20. Ofsted's budget for the 2015/16 financial year was £142.8m.

An Ofsted spokesperson said: “Government finance does not generally allow the movement of underspend from one year to the next. Any underspend has no bearing on future years' budget as agreed in the Spending Review.

“The underspend in 2015/16 arose largely from a fall in demand led work, including a reduction in the number of new registrations and policy changes in respect of concern driven inspections.”