Schools could go seven years between Ofsted inspections as the statutory window in which they have to be checked is set to be extended by two years, Tes understands.
Currently schools are inspected within five years from the end of the academic year of the previous inspection.
However, Ofsted and the Department for Education are understood to have agreed to an extension to the statutory inspection window in response to the Covid crisis, which has put routine inspection on hold since last March.
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The plan is awaiting ministerial sign-off, Tes understands.
Currently, the inspection clock is on hold following the decision to suspend routine school inspections at the outset of the Covid crisis.
Ofsted waiting to resume full school inspections
It is understood that there are concerns that Ofsted could miss its statutory targets for inspecting schools within five years as a result of the backlog of schools that will be due for inspection once the process resumes.
There are schools that have gone more than 10 years without inspection but this is because of an exemption that has been in place since 2011 on “outstanding” schools being inspected, which is now being lifted.
The inspectorate has been carrying out monitoring inspections in 2021 and is set to return to its full programme of inspections in September.
A DfE spokesperson said: “We have set out an intention that Ofsted resumes its full programme of routine, graded inspections from September.
“More information will be published in due course.”
An Ofsted spokesperson said: “The statutory clock remains suspended and we continue to discuss with DfE the terms under which it will restart.”
A National Audit Office report into Ofsted in 2018 revealed that there were 43 schools (0.2 per cent ) for which the inspectorate did not meet the statutory target to re-inspect within five years between 2012-13 and 2016-17.
