Prospect Education and Children’s Services – Ofsted to overhaul inspections

Prospect Education and Children’s Services Group tentatively welcomes the plans outlined yesterday by Chief Inspector Amanda Spielman for a new inspection regime and looks forward to engaging with the consultation due to open in January.

Ofsted has gravitated to a current model for inspection that measures the easily measurable. The Chief Inspector has clearly indicated a change of direction with the laudable intention to reward teaching that values real substance of education and not simply the data outcomes.

Standardising a new approach across inspectors and consultation will not be easy, and consultation with the professionals who undertake inspections will be absolutely crucial to delivering this effective change.

Prospect represent both self-employed consultants who carry out inspections and directly employed inspectors and our members carry out inspections in Schools and Early Years settings. We will therefore be seeking to ensure that views from across the Ofsted workforce as well as teachers and teaching unions are taken into account, including when consultation opens in January 2019.