Changes to the way Ofsted inspects and reports

The new Ofsted inspection framework came into force on the 1 September. Equality, Diversity, Inclusion (EDI) and British Values continues to feature highly, permeating all four key judgements. Fully integrating and promoting EDI and British values is therefore an essential part of your journey to outstanding and beyond – to be the ‘best of the best’. Are you ready?

What’s changing about inspection?

The new inspection framework has a greater focus on the real substance of education.  Inspectors will spend less time looking at data and more time looking at what is taught and how it is taught. They will look at how colleges and other education and training providers have achieved their results.

Ofsted grades will reflect the areas that matter most. A provider’s overall effectiveness is now informed by the 4 key judgements of:

• Quality of Education
• Personal Development
• Behavior and Attitudes
• Learnership and Management

Equality, Diversity, Inclusion (EDI) and British Values continues to feature highly, permeating all four key judgements. Examples are shown below for each of the four key judgements    

In relation to Quality of Education, providers need to be clear on the answers to 3 key questions:

• What are we trying to achieve through our curriculum? (Intent) - What do you want for learners, including the ‘knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed in life?
• How is our curriculum being delivered? (Implementation) - How are you integrating new knowledge of EDI and British Values into larger concepts? How is teaching, learning and assessment fulfilling your intent? How have you upskilled staff to enable high quality discussions and debates to take place?
• What difference is our curriculum making? (Impact) - How are you evaluating the knowledge and skills learners have gained against expectations? How are you demonstrating that your activities are genuinely developing and deepening learners’ understanding of British values? Is your practice robust regardless of the type of provision, for example education programmes for young people, adult learning programmes and apprenticeship training?

In relation to Personal development, this key judgement recognises a provider’s central role in helping to equip learners thoroughly for life as active citizens in Britain’s complex multicultural society. This key judgement focuses on the most significant dimensions of a learner’s personal development, including:

• developing and deepening learners’ understanding of the fundamental British values
• promoting an inclusive environment that meets the needs of all learners, irrespective of different protected characteristics
• developing learners’ confidence, resilience and knowledge so that they can keep themselves mentally healthy
• promoting equality of opportunity so that all learners can thrive together, understanding that difference is a positive, not a negative, and that individual characteristics make people unique
• character development, giving learners the qualities they need to flourish in society.

In relation to Behaviour and attitudes, providers need to develop and maintain a positive and respectful culture, where the principles of equality and diversity are nurtured and where all are treated with dignity and respect. Inspectors will determine if learners feel safe and if they experience any form of bullying, harassment or discrimination. And if incidents occur, do learners feel safe and confident to report them, knowing that staff will take swift and appropriate action?

A provider’s leadership and management remains a key area of consideration. EDI and British values continues to permeate this key judgement. The Education Inspection Framework, for example, states that inspectors will assess the extent to which a provider complies with relevant legal duties as set out in the Equality Act 2010, including, where relevant, the Public Sector Equality Duty and the Human Rights Act 1998.

Safeguarding continues to have a strong focus within leadership and management. In relation to EDI and British values, safeguarding is ineffective when:

• incidents of bullying or prejudiced and discriminatory behaviour, either direct or indirect, are common
• leaders fail to protect learners from the dangers of radicalisation and extremism in accordance with the ‘Prevent’ duty guidance.

I have released an update on the inspection of safeguarding which you can access here

How will the changes affect reports?

Reports on the inspection of an education and training provider will be shorter and clearer. They will be better focused on the users of those being inspected; young people, their parents or carers, adult students and employers.

Where can I find out more?

In June 2019, I wrote a more detailed article on the implications of the new inspection framework in relation to EDI and British values. You can access this article here

Ofsted have published their updated EDI statement at the end of July 2019, which you can download here

For further information on the new 2019 inspection framework, please see:

Education Inspection Framework, which can be downloaded here,  and

FE and skills inspection handbook, which can be downloaded here.

Training workshops

I am delivering training to colleges and training providers on EDI, British values and the new 2019 inspection framework. Sharing sector best practice, this engaging and highly practical workshop will help you to understand the practical implications of the new inspection framework. It will enable you to evaluate your practice, action plan for improvement and be inspection ready, to gain the very best inspection outcomes. You can download information about this training workshop here

I am also delivering national workshops on behalf of the AoC. We are just finalising dates and locations and I will send you an alert when these are all sorted. My alert will show where you can find out more information or register for one of these events.