Official Statistics

Methodology: state-funded schools inspections and outcomes as at 31 December 2021

Published 31 March 2022

Applies to England

Introduction

This document contains methodology and quality information relevant to our official statistics release of state-funded school inspections and outcomes data, which we publish 3 times per year.

This official statistics release reports on the outcomes of state-funded schools inspections that we carried out within the most recent reporting period. This release also includes the most recent inspection outcome of all open schools as at the end of the reporting period, including those schools that we have yet to inspect for the first time. If we have not yet inspected an open school, we will include the inspection outcome of its predecessor school to give a more comprehensive view of the sector. This release covers all state-funded schools in England.

Changes since the last release

In March 2020, we consulted on revising our post-inspection and complaints-handling arrangements so that any queries or concerns about an inspection can be dealt with quickly and before an inspection report is finalised. We received more than 600 responses and most supported the proposals. Following this, we implemented the new arrangements, including:

• setting a new, consistent timeline across all inspection remits
• giving providers more time to comment on their draft report
• allowing formal complaints to be submitted before a report is published

Our inspection handbooks explain that we now expect to publish reports on our website within 38 working days of the end of the inspection, unless we receive a formal complaint.

As a result of these changes, the average number of working days taken to publish an inspection report has increased.^{[footnote 1]} For inspections that took place between September 2018 and July 2019, the average number of working days was 18, compared with 27 days for inspections between April and July 2021.

In previous official statistics releases, the cut-off date for the inclusion of published inspection reports was 1 calendar month after the end of the reporting period. This allowed time for most of the relevant reports to have been published. Of the inspections that took place between September 2018 and 2019, 99.6% were included in the official statistics release for the period. Following the changes to our post-inspection process, of the inspections that took place between April and July 2021, only 90.4% were included in the official statistics release.

In order that we can continue to include most inspections carried out within the reporting period in our official statistics, we have increased the cut-off date for the inclusion of published inspection reports. In this and future releases, we will allow 1 calendar month plus 1 week after the end of the reporting period. This will not affect our publication date as we will incorporate these changes into our internal production processes.

Applying the Code of Practice

This section is broken down by the 3 pillars of the Code of Practice for Official Statistics:

• trustworthiness
• quality
• value

Trustworthiness

Timeliness and punctuality

Data is currently published 3 times a year and includes details of inspections that have taken place and been published within the reporting period.

We publish data at 9:30am on the date pre-announced in the publication schedule.

You can also find information on any delay in publication on the publication schedule.

The cut-off period for including published inspection reports in the statistics is 1 calendar month plus 1 week after the end of the reporting period. For example, if an inspection is completed by the end of March, the report will have to be published by 7 May to be included in the statistics. This is to allow time for most of the relevant reports to have been published. We do not usually publish inspection reports during school holidays, so the timing of school holidays can affect the proportion of reports that are published by the cut-off date for the statistics.

The average production time for this official statistics release is approximately 6 weeks. This time includes obtaining and cleaning the data, drafting findings, quality assuring all outputs and uploading the information onto GOV.UK.

We announce publication of the statistics on our social media channels. We give pre-release access in accordance with the Pre-release to Official Statistics Order (2008).

You can find the list of postholders granted pre-release access as a separate document accompanying each release.

Confidentiality, transparency and security

When we hold sensitive or personal data, our disclosure control processes ensure that it is not published.

All data releases follow our confidentiality and revisions policies.

Quality

Accuracy and reliability

We extract data on inspection outcomes from our administrative systems. The lead inspector enters inspection outcomes on to our systems. As inspection reports undergo a quality assurance process, any errors are likely to be identified at this stage. In addition, we check a sample of the entries made on to our administrative system to ensure that they match the inspection report. We focus on checking the entries where the risk of error is highest. An example of this is when the inspection outcome has changed during the quality assurance process. When this happens, there remains a small chance that some outcomes are entered incorrectly on to our systems.

Since October 2018, the publication dates on our statistical publications have been 1 day later than those displayed on the Ofsted website.

We moderate all inspection reports when a school is judged to be inadequate. This may result in some inspection reports being published after the publication cut-off date required for inclusion in the provisional release. Therefore, provisional statistics are likely to under-represent schools that have been placed in a category of concern. In addition, when there are concerns that further evidence may be required to secure the inspection evidence base, this will delay publication of an inspection report.

We publish revisions to the data in line with our revisions policy for official statistics.

Technical production

Technical production of the official statistics publication may also result in manual errors. We use a rigorous data quality assurance procedure, with the aim of minimising the risk of reporting errors. If an error is discovered in the document, we place a note on the website and upload a corrected version of the document as soon as possible.

Read more information on issues relating to the use of administrative data.

Data obtained from other sources

We get data indicating whether schools are opened or closed, their type, phase of education, religious character, religious ethos and any links to predecessor schools from the Department for Education (DfE)’s get information about schools (GIAS) database.

Data is sourced from GIAS at the end of the reporting period. For inspections in the academic year, we provide information about the school on the day of inspection. For latest inspections, we provide information about the school as at the end of the reporting period.

The DfE consider the quality of data on school openings and closures to be good. Changes that occur because of schools converting to academy status, re-brokering between academy trusts or closing to become sponsor-led academies are managed centrally by the DfE’s Academies Operations and Strategies team. The DfE carries out monthly reconciliation checks of these changes against its other data systems. It has identified some issues around the closure, merger and amalgamation of local authority maintained schools. Local authorities do not always inform the DfE of these changes, and therefore they are sometimes identified after the event. These discrepancies are usually identified as part of checks built into other processes.

Official statistics published since April 2016 have used GIAS data for all charts and tables. Data obtained from GIAS on the type of education is considered to be of good quality. Any change to the type of education requires verification from the DfE. The phase of education is not subject to the same verification. Local authorities and governing bodies of maintained schools can make changes of up to 2 years to the age range of schools through a non-statutory process. Errors are picked up as part of the DfE’s process for validating performance tables, but this may be after the event. The DfE requires schools to update their records every 90 days.

Coherence and comparability

The tables and charts within the release compare inspection outcomes over the past several years. We have updated all these tables and charts to reflect the changes, since June 2018, to the way we compile data on most recent inspection outcomes.

There have also been a number of framework changes since the first release of statistics and these have been reflected in the publications.

The overall effectiveness judgement has remained broadly comparable across the different frameworks since 2005. Other judgements are, when possible, mapped across frameworks when changes occur. We explain this in more detail in the ‘Changes to inspection frameworks’ section.

When these changes have occurred, we have alerted users through updates in the official statistics introduction and methodology sections of the key findings document. When changes to inspection frameworks or methodological changes have been implemented to improve the output, we have added guidance footnotes and the key findings document for easy access.

If inspection reports are published after the cut-off date for inclusion in a release, we will add the inspection outcomes to the next provisional official statistics release.

Some of Ofsted’s and the DfE’s policies impact on the comparability of different school types with each other and with schools as a whole. Comparisons between school types should be treated with caution due to the variation in the number of schools included in the different categories.

Other sources of similar data

No comparable data is published by other organisations that produce official or national statistics for school inspections in England.

For the devolved nations, inspections are carried out and reviews and reports published by the following:

• for Scotland, Education Scotland
• for Wales, Estyn
• for Northern Ireland, Education and Training Inspectorate

We also produce monthly management information on the outcomes of school inspections and a quarterly interactive web tool called Data View. At present, the methodology used to produce all 3 releases is the same.

Several third parties provide interactive tools that display publicly available Ofsted inspection judgements. These appear to be collated by using advanced computer techniques to harvest information from published inspection reports. We cannot comment on the quality of these datasets.

Changes to inspection frameworks

We introduced the education inspection framework (EIF) in September 2019 following a consultation.

The impact of the EIF on inspection judgements is as follows:

• overall effectiveness: this judgement is broadly comparable across all frameworks from September 2005 to date
• effectiveness of leadership and management: this judgement is broadly comparable across all frameworks from September 2005 to date
• quality of education: this judgement was introduced in September 2019 and is not comparable with earlier frameworks. As a result, analysis of this judgement will only represent inspections since September 2019 and will not provide a comprehensive view of the quality of provision nationally
• behaviour and attitudes: this judgement was introduced in September 2019 and is not comparable with earlier frameworks. As a result, analysis of this judgement will only represent inspections since September 2019 and will not provide a comprehensive view of the quality of provision nationally
• personal development: this judgement was introduced in September 2019 and is not comparable with earlier frameworks. As a result, analysis of this judgement will only represent inspections since September 2015 and will not provide a comprehensive view of the quality of provision nationally
• early years provision (if applicable): this judgement is broadly comparable across all frameworks from September 2005 to date, with the exception of the 2012/13 and 2013/14 academic years when, due to legislation changes, the judgement was not made at inspections. Since September 2015, nursery schools have not received a separate early years judgement
• sixth-form provision (if applicable): this judgement is broadly comparable across all frameworks from September 2005 to date. However, this judgement was not reported in 2012/13 and 2013/14 due to changes in legislation. Between 2005 and 2012, the judgement was made under the ‘overall effectiveness of the sixth form’ judgement, which was replaced by the 16 to 19 study programme judgement in September 2005. This was replaced by sixth-form provision (if applicable) from September 2019

The selection process

Schools are not inspected with equal regularity. Ofsted must inspect all schools to which section 5 of the Education Act 2005 (as amended) applies, within prescribed intervals.

The result of this is that the schools inspected in a particular academic year are unlikely to be representative of schools as a whole. This may also affect the comparability of school inspection outcomes between years. This is as a result of the following selection rules.

Selection rules

As of November 2020, all formerly exempt outstanding primary and secondary schools must receive an initial inspection under section 5 or section 8 before 1 August 2025. Schools that were last inspected under section 5 before September 2015 will receive a section 5 inspection. Those last inspected under section 5 after September 2015 will receive a section 8 inspection. If the section 8 inspection indicates that the school may not have maintained its outstanding performance, we will normally carry out a section 5 inspection in the next academic year or as soon as possible after this and, in any event, before 1 August 2025.

Some good and outstanding schools will be subject to a full section 5 inspection instead of a section 8 inspection. This will happen, for example, if a school has undergone significant change, such as in its age range, or if there are indications that the quality of provision may have deteriorated significantly. We will select these schools through our risk assessment process (except for previously exempt schools, which will be selected according to the process set out in the previous paragraph).

Usually, a section 8 inspection of a good or outstanding school will be followed by a further section 8 inspection after approximately a 4-year interval. However, if there is evidence that a good school has improved towards outstanding or may no longer be good, or that an outstanding school may no longer be outstanding, inspectors will specify that the next inspection will be a section 5 inspection, with the full range of graded judgements available.

We inspect schools that were judged to be less than good in their most recent inspection more frequently than good schools.

New schools are usually inspected according to a fixed cycle, so in most cases the timing of this inspection is not determined by the school’s performance data.

The comparability of data on the most recent inspection outcomes for all schools

The official statistics include analysis of the most recent inspection outcomes of all open schools (based on nearly 22,000 schools nationally). This analysis is often summarised as the percentage of schools judged good or outstanding at the end of each academic year. We, and others, use this statistic to try to measure the quality of the school sector over time.

A number of the factors discussed previously in this document affect the comparability of this statistic over time and should therefore be used with caution.

Comparability factors

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

Between 17 March 2020 and 31 March 2021, section 5(1) of the Education Act 2005 was disapplied under the Coronavirus Act 2020. As a result, routine inspections of schools were suspended and did not resume until the summer term of 2021. We did, however, carry out some non-routine inspections of schools under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. These included additional monitoring visits to schools judged less than good in the spring term of 2021.

We are required to inspect at prescribed intervals all schools to which section 5 applies. The law usually requires the maximum interval for section 5 inspections to be within 5 school years of the end of the school year in which the last section 5 (or relevant section 8) inspection took place. However, for the first routine inspection of schools after 4 May 2021, the maximum interval will be up to 7 years instead.^{[footnote 2]}

In November 2021, Ofsted committed to inspecting all schools between May 2021 and July 2025. To meet this commitment, we will change our inspection schedule from September 2022 and gradually increase the number of inspections we carry out each year. This will enable us to reduce the inspection interval for those inspected most recently before the pandemic. This means in practice that:

• we will inspect outstanding schools in line with the section below
• we are likely to inspect good schools last inspected in the 2016/17 academic year in the 2021/22 academic year, which is an extension of about 5 terms. From the 2022/23 academic year, we will work to gradually reduce this extension. In time, this will mean that we are likely to inspect good schools only 3 to 4 terms later than usual (so around 5 years after their last inspection). For subsequent inspections, we will return to inspecting good schools around every 4 years.

Before the pandemic, requires improvement and inadequate schools could expect an inspection approximately 30 months after their last inspection. For their first inspection since inspections were paused in 2020, this will be extended by 5 to 6 terms (so will be around 4 years from their last inspection). They will continue to receive monitoring inspections as set out in the section 8 inspection handbook.

We are likely to inspect new schools that opened before September 2020 in their fourth or fifth year of operation. We are likely to inspect new schools that opened after September 2020 in their third year of operation.

Outstanding schools that were formerly exempt from routine inspections

Between 15 May 2012 and 13 November 2020, maintained primary and secondary schools and academies judged to be outstanding in their overall effectiveness at their most recent section 5 inspection were exempt from routine inspections. These schools are now once again subject to routine inspections under section 5. This also applies to academy converter schools that were formerly exempt because the overall effectiveness of their predecessor school was outstanding at its most recent section 5 inspection.

The changes to section 8 inspections of all good schools and outstanding special schools, nursery schools and pupil referral units introduced in January 2018

These section 8 inspections now only convert to a section 5 inspection if there are concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education. If the inspector thinks that the school may be declining but does not convert the section 8 inspection to a section 5 inspection, then the outcome for the inspection is that the next inspection will be a section 5 inspection. Far fewer section 8 inspections have converted to a section 5 inspection since this change. This policy change means that some schools are still classed as good or outstanding in our data, whereas under the previous policy the inspections may have converted and some of these schools may have then been judged to have a lower grade. In our estimation, the impact of this change on the proportion of ‘good’ and ‘outstanding’ schools nationally is currently fairly minor.

Introduction of section 8 inspections for all good and outstanding special schools, nursery schools and pupil referral units

In September 2015, we introduced section 8 inspections of all good schools and outstanding special schools, nursery schools and pupil referral units. When a section 8 inspection converts to a section 5 inspection, the outcome is reported in the outcomes for section 5 inspections. We have also added additional tables to the release to show the numbers of these schools, the proportion that converted to section 5 inspections and the resulting inspection outcomes. When a school remains the same grade, for transparency, we also include all section 8 inspections that did not convert, as they have confirmed the grade of the previous section 5 inspection.

Before September 2015, all good schools received a section 5 inspection no later than the fifth academic year since their last inspection, including in cases when they continued to provide the same standard of education

Therefore, users should be particularly cautious if comparing outcomes from 2015/16 or later with previous years.

Changes to inspection frameworks over time

The overall effectiveness judgement is intended to be broadly comparable across all frameworks from 2005, when section 5 inspections began. There may have been some fluctuations over time in where the bar is set between ‘good’ and ‘requires improvement’/’satisfactory’. However, we do not believe that there has been a substantial lowering of this bar since 2010 that would account for the substantial rise in the proportion of schools judged good or outstanding at their most recent inspection since that time.

The different lengths of time between inspections for schools of each grade

This means that schools that are less than good are usually inspected more frequently than other schools. The impact of this is seen most clearly when users of our data try to compare inspections that take place in individual academic years. The inspections carried out in any single year are not designed to be representative of all schools nationally and the mix of grades is usually lower than that seen across all schools at their most recent inspection. Schools are risk assessed regularly, and we can bring inspections forward at any time if we have concerns about a school.

Value

Relevance

Information in this release has 5 distinct purposes:

• it allows media outlets to use our key findings to inform the public about the quality of schools across the country and in particular local areas
• it allows users to track movement in the education sector and monitor the quality of provision available at a national and local level and across provider types
• it gives an accurate picture of quality of the provision, which influences policy decisions about the location and quality of school provision
• it helps to identify areas of weak performance, which informs policy development within the DfE, local authorities and multi-academy trusts to address issues and implement strategies to mitigate them
• within Ofsted, inspection profiles inform the development of the inspection framework and underpin policies to improve standards; also, the key messages in the official statistics contribute towards the findings in our Annual Report to Parliament

The data included in the release is generated by our regulation and inspection process and is therefore administrative data.

Accessibility and clarity

We publish our releases in an accessible format on GOV.UK. The information is publicly available and there are no restrictions on access to the published data. Each release includes outcomes from inspections that have been published subsequently. The data aims to keep users informed of the progress of the inspection framework and of changes in the state-funded schools sector.

Each release is accompanied by underlying supporting data in an accessible format to allow users to perform their own analysis. Users may use and re-use this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence.

Performance, cost and burden on respondents

There is no burden on respondents in relation to this statistics release because data is a by-product of Ofsted’s inspection process. The only cost is the internal resource involved in collating the release.

Assessment of users’ needs and perceptions

We regularly review these official statistics to ensure that they meet users’ needs. This has included running several public consultations in the last few years.

In November 2017, we consulted on proposals to change the way we compile data on schools’ most recent inspections. Respondents supported these proposals. Based on these findings, we made all of the changes proposed as part of the consultation. We applied these for the first time in the official statistics published in June 2018.

In August 2015, we published the results of an earlier consultation on this official statistics release. You can read documents relating to this consultation, which include a list of the changes we made as a result.

Since the 2015 consultation, we have added a small number of additional tables and fields to the release to reflect the changes made to inspections in September 2015. These provide information on section 8 inspections of good and outstanding schools, as well as the new judgements introduced as part of the common inspection framework.

We welcome feedback about our statistical releases. If you have any comments, questions or suggestions, contact the schools data and analysis team on [email protected].

Methodology

Data in this official statistics series is from inspections carried out under sections 5 and 8 of the Education Act 2005. You can find further detail on the dates of inspections included in the release. If an inspection report is not published by the cut-off date given in the release, then the previous inspection will be reported as a school’s most recent inspection where applicable.

We will present and analyse the data in 2 ways:

• inspections that have occurred within the academic year being reported when published by the given date
• the most recent inspection outcome of all open schools as at the end of the reporting period, including those schools that we have yet to inspect for the first time; when an open school has not yet been inspected, we will include the inspection outcome of its predecessor school to give a more comprehensive view of the sector

For official statistics, we collect data on inspection outcomes 1 month and 1 week after the end of the reporting period. This helps to ensure that the vast majority of inspections carried out within the reporting period have reports that are published and are reflected within the official statistics. We do this to minimise bias. For instance, inspection reports of those schools judged inadequate undergo additional moderation checks and may otherwise miss a shorter reporting period.

Under exceptional circumstances, we may withhold or withdraw publication of an inspection report. Outcomes of withheld or withdrawn inspection reports are not included in any of the datasets.

We include warning notice data in the school-level data for any maintained school receiving a warning notice from a local authority. We have not included any warning notices given by local authorities that are currently under appeal or have been withdrawn.

When statements are made about whether inspection outcomes have declined or improved, they refer to the most recent inspection outcome compared with the previous inspection outcome. When we have not inspected a school in its current form, the most recent inspection (and the previous inspection outcome) will relate to the predecessor school.

Ofsted reports on various phases of education, which include different types of establishment.

When early years provision is governed by the school or it provides care for children aged 2 or over, we inspect it as part of the section 5 inspection and include the outcomes in the schools statistical release. Early years provision that cares for children aged under 2 needs to be registered on the Early Years Register and will have an early years inspection. We report on these outcomes under our early years official statistics.

When a boarding or residential special school’s section 5 or section 8 inspection is due in the same financial year as the full inspection of its boarding or residential provision, we will normally carry out an aligned inspection.

Aligned inspections are carried out by 2 separate inspection teams (education and social care). They result in 2 sets of graded judgements and 2 separate published reports. We will also publish on our reports website a summary letter using extracts from both reports.

Data View

Data in this release is also used to update Data View, an interactive Ofsted web tool.

We include schools in the most recent inspection outcomes if they were open on the final day of the reporting period, or if they closed on that day and we have inspected them or their predecessor school.

Glossary

Definitions of terms are in the statistical glossary.

1. Working days do not include weekends and school holidays. ↩

2. Education (School Inspection) (England) Regulations 2005 as amended by Regulation 2(3) of the Education (School Inspection) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2015 (SI 2015/170). ↩