Ofsted will resume asking part-time inspectors who are school leaders to carry out inspections from the end of the month, the Department for Education has confirmed.
At the start of January, Ofsted temporarily stopped asking inspectors who are serving school or college leaders to carry out inspections due to the rising impact of Covid on education - making the majority of the watchdog’s workforce unavailable.
But in information sent to school leaders today, the DfE said Ofsted will “now invite those who are able to inspect again to do so from Monday 31 January”.
It added that it will be for leaders to decide whether to offer their services to Ofsted, “as has always been the case”.
The DfE also confirmed that it would keep Ofsted’s deferral policy - which allows schools that are “significantly impacted” by Covid to ask for inspections to be postponed - for the remainder of this half-term.
The announcements come after the prime minister revealed that all Plan B measures to mitigate the effects of the Covid pandemic would be removed in England, with a full return to Plan A by Thursday 27 January.
As part of the move, face masks will no longer be required in classrooms from tomorrow.
The DfE says the decision is justified because it “comes in response to national infection data showing the prevalence of Covid-19 to be on a downward trajectory”.
