Ofsted is planning to give schools more time to comment on the accuracy of inspection reports under changes to the complaints process.

The inspectorate has also said it will not publish inspection reports until it has formally responded to any complaints it receives from schools.

As Tes revealed last week, Ofsted is consulting on changes to its complaints process.

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Background: Ofsted set to change how it deals with complaints

It is proposing to give schools five working days to make comments about the factual accuracy of a draft report.  Under the current arrangements, schools normally get one working day.

The consultation document says: “We recognise the importance of getting our inspection judgements right.

“An important part of our post-inspection arrangements is sharing a draft of the report with the inspected provider before we finalise it.

“However, we currently have different arrangements for this across the remits that we inspect. This limits the opportunity for some inspected providers to have as effective an input into the finalising of their reports as they might want.

“As a result, we are proposing to allow all inspected providers five working days to review their draft report and submit any comments about issues of factual accuracy and the inspection process for us to consider before we finalise the report.

“This extended period will allow all inspected providers the same opportunity to raise any issues of factual inaccuracy in their draft report, or to comment on any aspect of the inspection process. We will consider all submitted comments before we issue the final inspection report to a provider.”

The report also says that Ofsted will not publish inspection reports until it is has considered and responded to formal complaints.

Under the current system, Ofsted gives schools 10 working days to complain but does not normally withhold inspection reports.

However, the watchdog has acknowledged that this has led to it having to “take action after we have published a report when a complaint investigation highlights an error in the inspection process”.

It is now proposing that schools should make any formal complaints within two days of receiving the finalised report. And Ofsted is proposing that it will no longer publish these inspection reports until after it has considered and responded to the school. 

Ofsted’s consultation runs from today until the end of March. It plans to introduce changes from September.