Ofsted responds to Education Committee’s report that urged major changes to inspectorate’s work with schools

The Education Committee today publishes Ofsted’s response to its recent report on the inspectorate’s work with schools. 

The Department for Education is also due to provide a separate response to the Committee’s report by the end of March.  

Among the recommendations in the report were for Ofsted and the Government to: 

·       Develop an alternative to the single-word judgements; 

·       Make an assessment of the policy which sees schools that receive two consecutive 'requires improvement’ judgements become academies; 

·       Review the support mechanisms available to headteachers during and following an inspection; 

·       Ensure schools only receive ‘inadequate’ judgements on safeguarding where they are fundamentally failing to keep children safe; 

·       Review the implementation of the current inspections framework and its impact on workloads for schools; 

·       Conduct an in-depth review of Ofsted’s complaints processes.