The statistics watchdog has raised a concern with Ofsted over data “inconsistencies” that obscure when inspectors have had to return to schools to find extra evidence, Tes can reveal.
The concern is set out in an emailfrom the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA) to Adrian Gray, a former senior Ofsted inspector who alerted the agency to the problem affecting “incomplete” inspections.
When inspections are deemed “incomplete”, inspectors return to a school to gather additional evidence, before a final judgement is issued.
However, while these extra evidence-gathering days are set out in individual inspection reports, they have not always been recorded in Ofsted’s official “management information” database, which is a public record of all inspections.
Questions raised over ‘transparency of Ofsted’
Mr Gray said this “raises questions over the transparency of Ofsted”.
“We don’t know all of the schools which had incomplete inspections, what the original judgement was, or who had their incomplete inspection recorded correctly,” he said.
After raising his concern with the UKSA in May, he received a response from Ed Humpherson, head of the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR), the UKSA’s independent regulatory arm.
The response stated: “We agree that there are some inconsistencies in the reporting and have raised this issue with Ofsted who has investigated the matter.
“We look forward to seeing Ofsted make improvements in response,” it adds.
In response to Mr Gray’s comments, an Ofsted spokesperson said that the school watchdog aims to be “as open and transparent as possible and welcome interest in the data we publish”.
“In the rare occurrence an inspection is deemed incomplete, we inform the provider and make this clear in their published inspection report.”
Number of schools affected unknown
Ofsted’s monthly publication on state school inspections includes a list of the most recent published inspections, their outcomes, the inspection start and end date and the report publication date.
Ofsted told Tes that the reporting errors only affect a “very small number of inspections”, which it estimates to be less than 1 per cent of inspections for the 2023-24 financial year.
However, since the publication of May’s management information, and for all future data releases, Ofsted has renamed a tab in its monthly release labelled “end date” as“initial planned end date”.
The UKSA said that it considers these changes “to be a useful addition to support users of the data”.
It added: “We are continuing to talk with Ofsted about this matter through our routine engagement.”
The agency closed the case in June.
Fairness ‘central’ to Ofsted’s updated policies
Ofsted told Tes it is looking into potential options to resolve the discrepancy in the longer term, but there has been no decision about when this will happen.
“Otherwise it has the potential to cause confusion and undermine confidence in the statistics and organisations that produce them,” the guidance warns.
In an April press release, Ofsted said that fairness and transparency is “central” to Ofsted’s updated complaints and pausing policies.
Case studies
E-ACT Royton and Crompton Academy, a secondary school in Greater Manchester, had an inspection on 22 and 23 November 2022.
However, an additional visit was made on 18 and 19 January 2023 to “gather additional evidence”, the Ofsted report published in spring 2023 confirmed.
At the time of writing, Ofsted’s management information system still lists the inspection end date as 23 November 2022.
St Anne’s College Grammar School in Lancashire also had an additional visit after its original inspection.
“Two of His Majesty’s Inspectors made an additional visit to the school on 5 December 2023 to gather additional evidence”, the Ofsted report said.
But the official end date is listed as 5 October 2023 on the inspectorate’s management information.
Armley Grange School, a special school in Leeds, was deemed “incomplete” after the first two days of the visit, according to its Ofsted report published earlier this year.
Two inspectors returned on 10 November 2023 to gather additional evidence about the “quality of education”, the report continued.
But the inspection end date for Armley Grange is still listed as 5 October 2023 in Ofsted’s management system.
All schools and trusts named in this article have been contacted for comment.
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