Earlier this month, we launched a public consultation on our new approach to inspecting education providers. This includes new toolkits for how we will inspect, and the introduction of report cards.
We want to hear from parents, carers, learners and professionals. We want to make sure we understand their views, and consider any changes to our approach as a result.
Alongside the consultation, we are testing our new approach. This will help us to explore how the new approach and toolkits feel, both for the providers and the inspectors. Specifically, we are testing the following things:
- feasibility – to understand how well the inspection toolkits support inspectors to collect evidence
- validity – to understand the extent to which the toolkits enable inspectors to collect evidence on the most important aspects of education
- scalability – to understand how well the toolkits work together and make sure that they cover the right areas, include all that they need to, and avoid unnecessary or unhelpful repetition.
Our approach to testing
Inspectors will visit around 240 providers across the country. They will include childminders, nurseries, pre-schools, primary schools, secondary schools, special schools, independent schools, further education providers and ITE providers.
These voluntary visits will take different forms:
- a thematic visit – this will be a limited visit to providers, to test the feasibility and validity of specific aspects of the methodology and toolkits
- a paired thematic visit – this will be a limited visit to providers, by more than one inspector. It will test whether inspectors follow the same process, and have shared views on the strengths and areas for improvement
- an end-to-end visit – this will be a full visit to test the whole inspection methodology and toolkits
Around half the visits will be thematic or paired thematic visits, and around half will be end-to-end visits.
These visits will also provide an early opportunity for our inspectors to become familiar with the main features of the new approach. Of course, they will do this without pre-judging further changes, which may follow the consultation.
Next steps
We will gather and consider all feedback from these test visits, both from inspectors and providers. We will then reflect on the process and the effect of the new toolkits. This will allow us to make any necessary changes before introducing our new approach later this year.