Official Statistics

Main findings: further education and skills inspections and outcomes as at 28 February 2022

Published 30 June 2022

Applies to England

This is the main findings report for the further education and skills inspections and outcomes as at 28 February 2022 release. The following are also available:

• underlying data, tables and charts

• methodology

• pre-release access list

Summary

This release contains:

• provisional data for the most recent inspections and outcomes as at 28 February 2022

• provisional data for inspections and monitoring visits carried out between 1 September 2021 and 28 February 2022

• revised data for inspections and monitoring visits carried out between 1 September 2020 and 31 August 2021

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on this release

During the 2020/21 reporting year (1 September 2020 to 31 August 2021), full inspections could only take place between June and August, because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since 1 September 2021, we have been able to return to our full programme of inspections. Between 1 September 2021 and 28 February 2022, we prioritised the inspection of providers that had not yet had their first full inspection and providers that had previously been judged requires improvement or inadequate.

We have also resumed our usual inspection and monitoring of prisons and young offender institutions.

Considering the above, comparisons between full inspections carried out during the 2020/21 reporting year and the 2021/22 reporting year should be treated with caution.

We have resumed a full programme of inspections and have carried out 205 full inspections, 44 new provider monitoring visits (NPMVs) and 9 short inspections since 1 September 2021.

Between 1 September 2021 and 28 February 2022, 80% of providers were judged to be making at least reasonable progress in all themes at their NPMV, an increase of 4 percentage points compared with 2020/21.

The proportion of further education and skills providers judged good or outstanding as at 28 February 2022 was 85%, an increase of 3 percentage points since 31 August 2021.

The proportion of prisons and young offender institutions judged good or outstanding at their most recent inspection as at 28 February was 43%, continuing the decline previously reported.

Provider numbers

The number of providers publicly funded to deliver further education, training and/or apprenticeships continues to fluctuate.

On 28 February 2022, there were 1,990 further education and skills providers publicly funded and delivering education, training and/or apprenticeships recorded on Ofsted’s systems.

Between 1 September 2021 and 28 February 2022, we started reporting on an additional 39 providers that had become publicly funded and had started delivering education, training and/or apprenticeships. There are further providers going through the onboarding process on to Ofsted systems having begun delivery. Over the same period, we stopped reporting on 102 providers because they either merged, ceased to be funded or stopped delivering.

All of the additional 39 providers are independent learning providers (including employer providers). Of these, 38 are publicly funded to deliver apprenticeships.

Of the 102 providers that we no longer report on, 96 were independent learning providers (including employer providers). Of these providers, 50 had received an NPMV as their most recent inspection and nearly half of them (46%) had been judged to be making insufficient progress in at least one theme. There were 23 independent learning providers (including employer providers) that we stopped reporting on that had received full inspections. Of these, 12 (52%) were judged good or outstanding before they stopped providing education, training and/or apprenticeships prior to ceasing delivery.

There were 23 providers that started and stopped delivering education, training and/or apprenticeships before they were due any form of Ofsted inspection.

As at 28 February 2022, 59% of further education and skills providers had received a full inspection, and 28% had received an NPMV. The remaining 14% of providers will receive their NPMV within the time frames set out in our inspection handbook. Overall, the proportion of further education and skills providers not yet inspected has decreased by 1 percentage point since 31 August 2021 (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: Number and proportion of further education and skills providers inspected, over time

^{Number of providers in brackets.
Percentages are rounded and may not add to 100.
View data in an accessible table format.}

In-year inspection volumes and outcomes

Since resuming our full programme of inspections, we have prioritised inspections of providers that had not yet been inspected and providers that were previously judged requires improvement or inadequate.

In-year inspection volumes

Between 1 September 2021 and 28 February 2022, we carried out 44 NPMVs. During the same period, we carried out 5 follow-up safeguarding visits to providers that were judged to be making insufficient progress in safeguarding at their initial NPMV.

We carried out 205 full inspections between 1 September 2021 and 28 February 2022. Of these, 122 were inspections of providers that had not yet had a full inspection. We also carried out 60 full inspections of providers that were previously judged requires improvement or inadequate. During the same period, we carried out 9 short inspections of providers that were previously judged good.

In-year inspection outcomes

The inspections carried out between 1 September 2021 and 28 February 2022 can be broken down into the following categories:

• 122 inspections of providers that had not yet had a full inspection, of which 69% were judged good or outstanding

• 54 inspections of providers that were previously judged requires improvement, of which 63% improved to good or outstanding

• 15 full inspections of providers that were previously judged outstanding; of these, 5 remained outstanding and 10 were judged good

• 8 full inspections of providers that were previously judged good; of these, 7 remained good and 1 declined to inadequate

• 6 full inspections of providers that were previously judged inadequate, of which 4 improved to good, 1 improved to requires improvement and 1 remained inadequate

• 9 short inspections of providers that were previously judged good, all of which remained good

Overall, of the 205 full inspections carried out between 1 September 2021 and 28 February 2022, 70% resulted in a judgement of good or outstanding.

In-year NPMV outcomes

80% of providers were judged to be making at least reasonable progress in all themes at their NPMV, an increase of 4 percentage points compared with 2020/21.

Of the 44 NPMVs we carried out between 1 September 2021 and 28 February 2022, 80% of providers were judged to be making at least reasonable progress in all themes. We judged 9% be making insufficient progress in all themes.

At the 5 follow-up safeguarding visits, all providers were judged to be making reasonable progress in safeguarding.

Figure 2: NPMV outcomes, over time

^{Number of NPMVs in brackets.
Excludes follow-up safeguarding visits.
Percentages are rounded and may not add to 100.
View data in an accessible table format.}

Most recent inspection outcomes

The proportion of providers that were judged good or outstanding at their most recent inspection has increased by 3 percentage points since 31 August 2021.

On 28 February 2022, 59% of the 1,990 further education and skills providers had received a full inspection, which is an increase of 6 percentage points compared with 31 August 2021.

More providers improved to good or outstanding from requires improvement or inadequate (38) than declined to requires improvement or inadequate from good or outstanding (1).

Between 1 September 2021 and 28 February 2022, 29 providers that had previously had a full inspection lost funding to deliver public education, training and/or apprenticeships, or closed. Of these, 14 (48%) were judged requires improvement or inadequate.

On 28 February 2022, the proportion of further education and skills providers that were judged good or outstanding at their most recent full inspection was 85%, an increase of 3 percentage points since 31 August 2021.

Figure 3: Overall effectiveness of further education and skills providers at their most recent inspection, over time

^{Number of providers in brackets.
Percentages are rounded and may not add to 100.
View data in an accessible table format.}

Outcomes by provider group

Independent learning providers (including employer providers)

Between 1 September 2021 and 28 February 2022, we inspected 148 independent learning providers (including employer providers). These inspections can be broken down into the following categories:

• 109 providers received their first full inspection

• 24 full inspections of providers that had previously been judged requires improvement

• 10 full inspections of providers that had previously been judged good or outstanding

• 5 short inspections of providers that had previously been judged good

Of the 109 providers that received their first full inspection, 68% were judged good or outstanding, an increase of 5 percentage points compared with the 2020/21 reporting year.

Of the 24 independent learning providers (including employer providers) previously judged requires improvement, 12 improved to good, 10 remained requires improvement and 2 declined to inadequate. None of the 10 independent learning providers (including employer providers) previously judged good or outstanding declined to requires improvement or inadequate. However, 4 that were previously judged outstanding were judged good.

Overall, 1,336 independent learning providers (including employer providers) were publicly funded and delivering education, training and/or apprenticeships as at 28 February 2022. Of the 631 that had received full inspections, 80% were judged good or outstanding at their most recent inspection. This is an increase of 1 percentage point since 31 August 2021.

General further education colleges

Between 1 September 2021 and 28 February 2022, we inspected 23 general further education (FE) colleges. Of these, 14 were previously judged requires improvement, of which 9 improved to good and 5 remained requires improvement. We inspected 3 colleges that were previously judged good or outstanding, all of which were judged good. We also inspected 6 colleges for the first time since they merged, all of which were judged good.

As a result of 9 general FE colleges improving from requires improvement to good and the 6 merged colleges being judged good at their first full inspection, there has been an increase in the proportion of general FE colleges judged good or outstanding at their most recent inspection.

On 28 February 2022, 162 general FE colleges were publicly funded and delivering education, training and/or apprenticeships. Of the 143 that had received full inspections, 85% were judged good or outstanding at their most recent inspection. This is an increase of 8 percentage points since 31 August 2021 (see Figure 4).

Figure 4: Overall effectiveness of general further education colleges at their most recent inspection, over time

^{Number of providers in brackets.
Percentages are rounded and may not add to 100.
View data in an accessible table format.}

Table 1: Summary of main findings for provider groups with between 5 and 15 full inspections from 1 September 2021 to 28 February 2022

Provider group	No. of providers	No. of inspections	Main findings
Adult community education providers	146	8 full inspections and 4 short inspections	4 providers improved from requires improvement to good and 1 improved from inadequate to good. This improvement increased the proportion of adult community education providers judged good or outstanding at their most recent inspection from 93% as at 31 August 2021 to 97% as at 28 February 2022.
Independent specialist colleges (ISCs)	112	10 full inspections	2 providers improved from requires improvement or inadequate to good and 1 provider declined from good to inadequate. 1 provider remained inadequate at re-inspection and 3 providers remained requires improvement at re-inspection. As at 28 February 2022, 77% of ISCs were judged good or outstanding at their most recent inspection.
Higher education institutions (HEIs)	94	5 full inspections	2 providers improved from requires improvement to good, 2 providers were judged requires improvement at their first inspection and 1 provider that was previously judged outstanding was judged good. Overall, 92% of HEIs were judged good or outstanding at their most recent inspection as at 28 February 2022.
Sixth- form colleges	45	7 full inspections	3 providers improved from requires improvement to good and 1 provider improved from inadequate to good. There were 3 providers inspected that were previously judged outstanding, 2 remained outstanding and one was judged good. As at 28 February, 98% of sixth-form colleges were judged good or outstanding, a 10 percentage point increase since 31 August 2021.
16 to 19 academies	61	8 full inspections	2 providers improved from requires improvement to good and 1 improved from requires improvement to outstanding. 1 previously outstanding provider remained outstanding. Four of the 16 to 19 academies were inspected for the first time, and were all judged outstanding. As at 28 February 2022, 98% of 16 to 19 academies were judged good or outstanding at their most recent inspection, a 6 percentage point increase since 31 August 2021.

Prisons and young offender institutions

The proportion of prisons and young offender institutions judged good or outstanding at their most recent inspection has declined by 2 percentage points since 31 August 2021.

On 28 February 2022, there were 115 prisons and young offender institutions, all of which had been inspected.

Ofsted contributed to 3 prison and young offender institution inspections where the reports were published between 1 September 2021 and 28 February 2022.

These inspections were made up of:

• 2 prison and young offender institutions previously judged good, of which both declined to requires improvement

• 1 prison and young offender institution that remained requires improvement

Overall, 43% of prisons and young offender institutions were judged good or outstanding at their most recent full inspection as at 28 February 2022, a decline of 2 percentage points compared with 31 August 2021 (see Figure 5).

Figure 5: Overall effectiveness of education, skills and work in prisons and young offender institutions at their most recent inspection, over time

^{Number of providers in brackets.
Percentages are rounded and may not add to 100.
View data in an accessible table format.}

Revisions to previous release

In-year statistics

Alongside these official statistics, we have published a revised provider-level dataset, which includes inspections carried out between 1 September 2020 and 31 August 2021. This is to include the outcomes of those inspections that were carried out during the period, but the inspection report had not been published at the time of compiling the statistics.

There were 7 full inspections not published at the time of compiling our previous statistical release. All 7 were of independent learning providers that had not previously been inspected. There were also 3 NPMVs (2 to independent learning providers and 1 to an ISC) not published at the time of compiling our previous statistical release.

This means that some percentages we previously reported on for 2020/21 may have changed by more than 1 percentage point, due to the small numbers of inspections carried out during the 2020/21 reporting year. This impacts the all provider type totals and independent learning providers figures. All updated information for 2020/21 can be found within the data, tables and charts file that is published as part of this statistical first release. These changes do not affect the overall messages previously reported.

We publish revisions to data in this publication in line with Ofsted’s revisions policy for official statistics.

Notes

The quality report for these official statistics explains our methodology and the relevant inspection frameworks, along with other useful information.

Glossary

Definitions of terms are in the statistical glossary.

Further information

Contact for comments or feedback

If you have any comments or feedback on this publication, contact Stuart Lloyd on 03000 131 169 or [email protected].

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the following for their contribution to this statistical release: John Hadler, Emily Green and Kyle Drury.

Annex: data tables for figures

Data for Figure 1: Number and proportion of further education and skills providers inspected, over time

Date as at:	Total number of providers	% received full inspection	% received new provider monitoring visit	% not yet inspected
28 February 2022	1,990	59	28	14
31 August 2021	2,053	52	33	15
31 August 2020	1,872	58	29	13
31 August 2019	1,904	55	23	22
31 August 2018	1,682	59	4	37

See Figure 1.

Data for figure 2: NPMV outcomes, over time

Reporting year:	Total number of new provider monitoring visits	% reasonable or significant in all themes	% insufficient in at least one theme	% insufficient in all themes
2021/22	44	80	11	9
2020/21	234	76	18	6
2019/20	167	76	16	8
2018/19	387	80	16	5
2017/18	66	80	17	3

See Figure 2.

Data for figure 3: Overall effectiveness of further education and skills providers at their most recent inspection, over time

Date as at:	Total number of providers with an inspection judgement	% outstanding	% good	% requires improvement	% inadequate
28 February 2022	1,168	12	73	12	3
31 August 2021	1,076	13	69	16	2
31 August 2020	1,083	13	68	15	4
31 August 2019	1,050	14	67	14	4
31 August 2018	997	15	66	17	2
31 August 2017	1,023	15	64	18	2

See Figure 3.

Data for figure 4: Overall effectiveness of general further education colleges at their most recent inspection, over time

Date as at:	Total number of providers with an inspection judgement	% outstanding	% good	% requires improvement	% inadequate
28 February 2022	143	10	75	15	0
31 August 2021	139	12	65	24	0
31 August 2020	147	12	63	24	1
31 August 2019	129	12	65	22	0
31 August 2018	140	14	62	24	0
31 August 2017	160	13	54	31	3

See Figure 4.

Data for figure 5: Overall effectiveness of education, skills and work in prisons and young offender institutions at their most recent inspection, over time

Date as at:	Total number of providers with an inspection judgement	% outstanding	% good	% requires improvement	% inadequate
28 February 2022	115	2	42	43	14
31 August 2021	115	2	43	41	14
31 August 2020	115	2	43	41	14
31 August 2019	114	3	47	37	13
31 August 2018	112	4	44	41	11
31 August 2017	106	5	38	44	13

See Figure 5.