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Ofsted has printed its company annual report and accounts, laying naked how the watchdog’s work has modified in an unprecedented yr by which most of its features had been scaled again.
The doc focuses on the inspectorate’s efficiency, and isn’t the identical because the official annual report back to Parliament every year, which focuses on inspection exercise.
With routine graded inspections having been been suspended since March 2020, the report outlines how Ofsted tailored its method all year long.
Listed below are eight attention-grabbing findings.
1. Ofsted carried out over 2,500 faculty ‘visits’
In complete Ofsted carried out 2,128, largely digital “visits” to state-funded faculties and 457 to impartial training suppliers between April 2020 and March 2021.
As compared, the inspectorate carried out 5,544 inspections of maintained faculties, academies, particular faculties, and impartial faculties in 2018-19.
Of the visits to state faculties, 1,415 had been “interim visits”, whereas 636 had been monitoring inspections.
As Ofsted has warned earlier than, the report acknowledges that inspecting remotely “gives much less assurance, and that we can not present satisfactory assurance remotely about safeguarding”.
2. Unbiased faculties extra prone to get ‘pressing’ inspections
Between April 1, 2020 and March 31, 2021, Ofsted carried out 40 pressing inspections of impartial training suppliers.
Pressing inspections are carried out when the watchdog has considerations about management and administration or safeguarding.
In distinction, 18 had been carried out at state-funded faculties.
Ofsted additionally carried out 61 visits to impartial training suppliers suspected of operating an unlawful faculty.
3. Nearly 800 workers redeployed throughout pandemic
Almost 800 members of workers, round a 3rd of Ofsted’s workforce, had been deployed in 2020-21 because of the pandemic.
The report reveals 772 workers took on roles elsewhere because the suspension of inspections supplied further capability.
Potential conflicts of curiosity had been flagged previous to deployment, with mitigations launched if obligatory.
Some workers had been deployed to different authorities departments such because the Division for Work and Pensions, the Division of Well being and Social Care, the DfE and the Cupboard Workplace.
Whereas others had been deployed to over 100 native authorities, in addition to to multi-academy trusts, youngsters’s houses and the NHS.
These workers helped to trace and help weak youngsters, advise faculties and develop safeguarding processes.
4. Complaints down 92%
Ofsted acquired simply 67 complaints this yr in contrast with 890 in 2019-20 – a drop of round 92 per cent.
As most complaints come from lately inspected suppliers, Ofsted said it was “not shocking that we have now seen a big discount in complaints”.
Greater than half of the complaints had been from early years suppliers and had been about registration and different regulatory exercise that continued by way of the pandemic.
5. However 1 in 4 complaints upheld (with 5 inspections ‘incomplete’)
Throughout 2020-21, Ofsted closed 320 complaints.
Closed complaints embody all instances the place a response was despatched in 2020-21, no matter when the criticism was acquired.
Of these closed, 26 per cent “had a side upheld or partially upheld”.
The report states: “When a criticism is upheld, we take immediate motion to place issues proper”.
The general effectiveness judgement was modified for 3 inspections whereas Ofsted additionally deemed 5 inspections to be incomplete.
This led to inspectors finishing up an additional go to to collect further proof.
6. Suggestions to visits ‘overwhelmingly optimistic’
Suppliers who acquired an interim or assurance go to within the autumn and spring time period got a survey following the go to.
Chief inspector Amanda Spielman stated the surveys had been “overwhelmingly optimistic with suppliers saying that the go to will assist them to enhance”.
Through the autumn, 75 per cent of 588 state-funded faculties both strongly agreed or agreed the go to helped them to replicate on present plans and transfer ahead.
Through the spring, 96 per cent of 355 state-funded faculties answered the identical method.

Amanda Spielman
7. Spielman warns of ‘distinctive problem’ forward
In her foreword to the report, Spielman stated she was “delighted” to be reappointed for an additional two years.
However she stated she might see the “distinctive problem forward for all in training and youngsters’s social care as we work collectively to deliver youngsters’s lives again to normality and make up for the acute disruption most have suffered”.
“I and my group at Ofsted are dedicated to enjoying our full half.”
8. Senior workers waive bonuses attributable to Covid
None of Ofsted’s government board members acquired bonuses within the 2020-21 yr.
The report states: “Given the pandemic, senior managers agreed to waive any bonus which may in any other case have been paid (in keeping with wider Civil Service pay coverage) in 2020–21 (and any end-of-year bonuses regarding the 2020–21 efficiency yr that will have been paid in 2021–22).
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