PROVIDERS RATED ‘GOOD’ BY OFSTED BEWARE!

If you’re a provider who has been judged to be ‘good’ at your most recent Ofsted inspection, don’t be lulled into a false sense of security by thinking Ofsted are going to leave you alone for a long time.

?I have worked with a lot of providers who have gone on to achieve ‘good’ or even ‘outstanding’ at their most recent Ofsted inspection. They are, of course, thrilled with their inspection outcome and quite rightly so.

?And, given the current rules on inspections of ‘good’ providers, they also tend to think that it will be a long time before they are inspected again, particularly when one factors in a possible change in government and a new Chief Inspector, both of which one would think might delay the introduction of a new inspection framework and any consequent changes to inspection timescales.

?But, this might not necessarily be the case, and providers who are currently ‘good’ could find themselves being inspected again much sooner than they anticipate. Let me explain:

?The current rules on inspecting ‘good’ providers

?First of all, let’s remind ourselves of the current ‘rules’ on inspecting ‘good’ providers in the Education and Inspection Framework (EIF).

• ?The vast majority of providers, and certainly all of those delivering apprenticeships, will receive, or have already received, a full inspection before September 2025 – about a year and a half away.
• ?This rule came into being for almost all providers in scope for a full inspection from April 2021 onwards – so, for example, independent training providers, employer providers, further education colleges and local authorities delivering apprenticeships, which the vast majority of them now do.
• ?These rules have been complicated slightly for one or two types of providers, for example colleges who, from September 2022 onwards, all have an enhanced skills inspection even if they were inspected in the previous year and a half from April 2021.
• ?All providers judged to be ‘good’ since April 2021 will receive another full inspection within five years of the date of publication of the previous inspection report. So, a provider whose report was published right at the start of the current window in, say, June 2021, can currently expect its next full inspection before June 2026 – which, for most of us, seems ages away and certainly too far off to even begin to contemplate! And for providers inspected more recently and judged to be ‘good’, their next inspection must seem so far off into the distance as to be barely worthy of consideration. And who knows what changes might need to be factored in with a new Chief Inspector and a possible change of government – both these factors tend, I think, to make a next full inspection seem even further away in the minds of most providers. ?

?The current state of play

• ?There are, roughly, about 500 providers who are currently grade 3 or who ‘require improvement’ – they are either waiting for a requires improvement monitoring visit or their next full inspection. Some of them might then still remain as ‘requiring improvement’ of course after their next inspection, but previous data tells us that about two thirds to three quarters of them are likely to move to 'good’.
• ?In addition, there are a number of new providers yet to have their very first inspection, known as a New Provider Monitoring Visit – a lot of those will probably be skills bootcamp providers and of course one has to factor in inspections of other remits in the post-16 sector, such as inspections of education in prisons. There are also some previously ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ providers last inspected before April 2021 who are yet to have their full inspection before September 2025 as per the rules outlined above – however, this is a rapidly diminishing cohort as Ofsted catches up on its post-Covid inspection backlog.
• ?So, you’d be thinking, fine! 500 or more providers is a lot for Ofsted to get through and there is no danger of them giving us a call as a ‘good’ provider until at least three years or so have lapsed from our last inspection report being published. And who could blame you for thinking that way?

?However, and here is the rub….

• ?Ofsted inspectors carry out roughly 30 inspections a week in total of various types across the eight Ofsted regions. If you do the maths, it is not going to take them long to work through 500 or so ‘requires improvement’ providers who need inspecting currently plus the extra new providers, prisons, legacy grade 2 providers etc. ?
• ?Ofsted has a very expensive fixed cost of full-time inspectors, otherwise known as HMI, who need to be gainfully employed carrying out what they are paid to do – inspections.
• ?There will now be a body of providers who were inspected after April 2021 and judged to be ‘good’ by Ofsted for whom two to three years and counting have elapsed since that inspection – so they are well into the five year timeframe of receiving their next full inspection. Providers also very easily forget that a next full inspection ‘within’ five years is not the same as ‘after’ five years.
• ?We have two or more years of not very impressive QAR data for the apprenticeship sector. Even given all of the inadequacies of measuring provider success using this data and the problems with the time lags involved, Ofsted is going to be sitting on a lot of ‘good’ providers inspected since April 2021 who have a QAR below, say, 50% (a key accountability threshold) for one or more of the most recent years up to, and including, the most recently published data for 2022/23. ?And Ofsted carries out regular risk assessments of all its providers to assess who might need to be brought forward, or put back, in their inspection cycle.

?What are the possible implications for ‘good’ providers?

• You should not assume that just because you have been inspected since April 2021 and were judged to be a ‘good’ provider, that your next full inspection is ‘miles off happening’. Ofsted has to carry on inspecting regardless of changing internal (new Chief Inspector) and external (possible change of government) factors and will not want to exist for the next year or two on a diet of inspecting solely grade 3 providers plus a smattering of new ones.
• ?Nor should you think that Ofsted is too busy inspecting other providers who, unlike you, were not so successful at their full inspection since April 2021 to bother with those who got ‘good’ like you. They are busy of course but, as we have seen above, with an inevitably diminishing pool of ?those less than good or new providers as they motor through a lot of inspections each week. ?
• ?So, if you are a provider who got their ‘good’ from Ofsted more than a couple of years ago and whose recent QAR data is not too impressive – perhaps below 50% overall for each of the past two years – you might want to be thinking about whether you have all your ducks lined up in a row and are ready for another Ofsted inspection sooner than you think so that you are not taken by surprise if you receive ‘the call’.
• ?Or you might be a ‘good’ provider inspected more recently – within the past two years let’s say – but whose QAR data has unfortunately nosedived spectacularly since. That will almost inevitably bring you to the attention of Ofsted for another full inspection. ?
• ?…as will being a provider who was judged to be ‘good’ last time out but now has substantial new provision that has never been inspected – skills bootcamps is the example that most readily comes to mind. Or perhaps a devolved local authority or DfE adult skills contract?

?So, the message is… don’t be lulled into a false sense of security and take your foot off the pedal just because you are a ‘good’ provider currently and think your next Ofsted inspection is off into the midst’s of time.