Ofsted has been warned that it is “extraordinary” that it has failed to publish any governing board minutes for meetings held this year - during a period in which the watchdog has been under major scrutiny.

The heads of school leaders’ and teachers’ unions have criticised the inspectorate and called for greater transparency.

The latest set of meeting minutes for Ofsted’s governance board were published in March this year - but these related to meetings that were seven and ten months old, and there have been no updates for meetings held after September 2023.

This means no published record of board discussions is publicly available for a period dating back almost 12 months.

No public record of board discussions this year

Since the last published meeting, Ofsted has seen a change of chief inspector, responded to critical inquest findings into the death of headteacher Ruth Perry, conducted a sector-wide consultation on the future of inspection and announced a plan to create a new school inspection framework.

The delay in publishing board meetings comes as an independent review into Ofsted called for the inspectorate’s governing board to be “revised” and “better used”. The review, led by former chief inspector Christine Gilbert, found that the board had a limited role and no control over the watchdog’s budget.

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Although Tes understands that Ofsted’s governance board has still been meeting this year, no board minutes have been published for meetings during the current chief inspector Sir Martyn Oliver’s time in charge. He succeeded Amanda Spielman in January this year.

The period where no minutes have been published also includes December 2023 - the month in which a coroner ruled that an Ofsted inspection contributed to the death of headteacher Ms Perry. She took her own life after an inspection which downgraded her school from “outstanding” to “inadequate” on safeguarding concerns.

Delay does not encourage ‘confidence’ in reform

Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, encouraged the inspectorate to ensure that its board minutes are published “regularly and promptly”.

Under Sir Martyn, Ofsted has “declared a determination to do things differently”, Mr Di’Iasio said, adding that publishing the minutes more routinely would be a “small but simple step” to demonstrate this was happening.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary at the NAHT school leaders’ union, said: “Given the profession’s well-documented lack of confidence in the inspectorate and its promises of transparency, it is extraordinary that Ofsted as a public body should have published no minutes for any board meetings since last September.”

A spokesperson for Ofsted told Tes that it was “experiencing a slight delay” in publication, due to several recent “competing publication priorities, including the Big Listen documents”.

The watchdog also said that the process of uploading board minutes can be “lengthy”, as they have to be ratified at the subsequent board meeting and be internally processed to ensure the published version does not include personal information.

An Ofsted spokesperson said: “We hope to publish board minutes later this week, as we work through documents that need to be published.”

Ofsted will ‘improve transparency’

In its Big Listen response, which summarised findings from a sector-wide consultation, Ofsted said it will “improve transparency across all aspects of our work” and become “more open to challenge” going forward.

Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the NEU teaching union, suggested that “withholding minutes hardly encourages confidence that it is sincere”.

“If Ofsted wants to rebuild its reputation, it should start with transparency,” Mr Kebede continued.

Minutes should be published on a “routine basis”, the Independent Commissioners Office (ICO) wrote in guidance for public authorities.

“It is good practice for public authorities to have a process that ensures minutes related to regular meetings are published reasonably soon after the meeting has been held,” the ICO added.