Ofsted is struggling to retain experienced inspectors because academy trusts are luring them away with higher salaries, the chief inspector has warned.

Amanda Spielman was responding to concerns that the organisation is struggling to recruit enough inspectors of the highest quality.

Speaking at last week’s International Festival of Learning at West Suffolk College, she said: “Recruitment is a perennial challenge. We live in a world where our experienced inspectors get hired away from us at an astonishing rate, particularly by MATs that don’t have the constraints that we have on pay.

“It’s important that we make sure that it’s an attractive job and something that people want to stay in for a decent stint.”

She added: “The clearer we all are about what the mechanisms are by which inspection, which when it is done well really is a force for improvement, how we maximise that, that’s what makes it a rewarding job and that’s what will help make sure we get and retain the right people.”

Asked by Tes afterwards whether multi-academy trusts were poaching good inspectors, she said: “Well inevitably it can feel a bit like that.”

She added: “When HMIs are really good it’s very visible that they are really good, so in some ways you have to take it as a compliment.”

Ms Spielman rejected the idea that Ofsted should be able to pay inspectors higher salaries or retention bonuses, and said it was “probably better to make sure we have a good flow coming in, that we’re an attractive thing”.

She said that having experienced inspectors moving back into the sector was “probably a good thing”, and added: “It’s about finding that sweet spot where people do it for long enough and get enough and good enough experience that they are really solid and have a well-developed conception of what they do before they move on.”