OFSTED

Responsibilities

They are responsible for:

• inspecting maintained schools and academies, some independent schools, and many other educational institutions and programmes outside of higher education
• inspecting childcare, adoption and fostering agencies and initial teacher training
• publishing reports of our findings so they can be used to improve the overall quality of education and training
• regulating a range of early years and children’s social care services, making sure they’re suitable for children and potentially vulnerable young people
• reporting to policymakers on the effectiveness of these services

Priorities

• put in place our strategic plan to continue to raise standards and improve lives
• use our new education inspection arrangements to ensure short inspections of good schools and further education providers are consistent, efficient and effective
• use more good and outstanding sector professionals as part of inspection teams
• review inspection for early years and social care
• develop and implement our workforce strategy
• focus inspection on services that are less than good or whose performance has slipped
• focus on the performance of the most disadvantaged and vulnerable
• identify and promote exceptional leadership in each of our inspection areas
• identify and report on issues of concern in the sectors we inspect
• promote the improvement of technical, vocational and further education
• work with parents and carers, learners and employers to ensure their views contribute towards inspections and they use and value our inspection reports
• work with policy makers and influencers to ensure they understand our work and are able to promote it and our findings
• work with those we inspect to ensure they find our inspection and regulatory work fair and credible and it helps them to improve