Information about Ofsted

The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is the non-ministerial government department of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools In England ("HMCI"). All the powers belong to HMCI or to Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools ("HMI") who are appointed by Order in Council and are thus office holders under the Crown. Ofsted itself has no legal existence or statutory recognition but is identified in the public mind with the functions of HMCI.

In April 2007 the former Office for Standards in Education merged with the Adult Learning Inspectorate (ALI) to provide an inspection service which includes all post-16 government funded education (but not which are inspected by the Quality Assurance Agency). At the same time it took on responsibility for the registration and inspection of social care services for children from the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI).

HMCI is responsible for inspecting the standards of independent and state schools, local education authorities, child day care and childminding in England. She monitors the work of the Independent Schools Inspectorate. She is also empowered and required to provide independent advice to the United Kingdom government and parliament on matters of policy and to publish an annual report to parliament on the quality of educational provision in England.

The offices of HMCI and of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools (HMI) go back to the mid-19th century but were re-established 1993, under the Education (Schools) Act 1992.

In September 2001 HMCI became responsible for registration and inspection of day care and childminding in England. This was previously the done by 150 local authorities, based on their implementation by 1992 of the Daycare Standards provisions of the 1989 Children Act.

The Education and Training Inspectorate in Northern Ireland, Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education in Scotland, and Estyn in Wales perform similar functions within their education systems.

Previous system of inspection

Critics of the system of inspection claim that the short amount of time in which HMI get to see the school does not accurately represent the day-to-day activities and can give a biased view. Further, with notice given to the school of a pending inspection they can often quickly organise themselves in order to appear better than at other times when not being watched. This, it could be said, at least forces the school and its teachers to prepare for the duration of the inspection and that can have many positive after-effects, though, obversely, it has also been argued that the notice given can enable schools to present an unrealistic picture of themselves that does not truly reflect the quality of teaching and learning in the school. Another disadvantage of the previous system is that it does not represent students' achievements and underachievements as accurately as day-to-day school life would show under normal circumstances.

Schools were generally inspected every four years, though this can depend on previous Ofsted results.

Current system of inspection

In September 2005 a new system of short notice inspections came into being. Under this system the senior leadership of each school are required to complete a Self Evaluation Form (SEF) on a continual basis, which requires them to be aware of strengths and areas for development. Inspections are generally every three years with a key focus on the 'central nervous system' of the school - examining how well the school is managed, and what processes are in place to ensure standards of teaching and learning improve; the school leadership and management are expected to be aware of everything in the SEF. A school's performance is judged by the accuracy of self-evaluation combined with evidence and strategic policies for development and improvement. Although all schools are inspected every three years, the amount of inspection time given to each school is increasingly in proportion to the school's success, with consistently successful schools getting very short inspections (perhaps one inspector for one day); the system continues to evolve. The self-evaluation form (SEF) serves as the main document when planning the inspection, and is crucial in evaluating the quality of leadership and management and your capacity to improve.

Inspectors

There are three types of Ofsted inspector:

• Senior inspectors are titled Her Majesty's Inspectors (HMI) and are appointed by the Queen in Council.
• Additional Inspectors (AI), employed by private sector regional contractors, who make up the majority of inspectors.
• Additionally, HMCI directly employs child care inspectors (CCI) who inspect and regulate early years settings and child care.

HM Chief Inspector is Christine Gilbert OBE, who started this role on 1st October 2006. One of her key briefs is to oversee the expansion of Ofsted's remit from April 2007 to include the inspection of children's social services, adult learning and aspects of court administration, as this relates to children.

Special measures

Sometimes schools are placed into special measures if a poor report is given. Schools placed into special measures receive intensive support from local authorities, additional funding and resourcing, and frequent reappraisal from Ofsted until the school is no longer deemed to be failing. Furthermore, the senior managers and teaching staff can be dismissed and the school governors are replaced by an appointed executive committee. Other inadequate schools are given a Notice to Improve.

See also

• Education in England
• Estyn (Welsh equivalent)
• Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education (Scottish equivalent)
• Education and Training Inspectorate (Northern Ireland equivalent)

External links

• Official Ofsted website
• Problems hit school data systems
• Ofsted reports omitted top grades
• Parents get 'secret' school data
• 'School inspections to be contracted out', article on Guardian Unlimited, 26 May 2005
• 'Ofsted staff told to smarten up', article on Guardian Unlimited, 28 October 2005
• 'Ofsted is bloated and bureaucratic, say MPs', article on Guardian Unlimited, 12 July 2007