Consultation outcome

Equality, diversity and inclusion statement: statistics on further education and skills inspections and outcomes

Updated 24 June 2021

Applies to England

Introduction

This document sets out Ofsted’s consideration of how the proposed changes to its statistical release on further education and skills inspections and outcomes will enable Ofsted to fulfil the requirements of the Equality Act 2010, including the public sector equality duty (PSED) set out in section 149 of the Equality Act 2010.

The PSED requires Ofsted, when exercising all its functions, to have due regard to the need to:

• eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct that is prohibited by or under the Equality Act 2010
• advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it
• foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it

We are publishing this statement as part of the ‘Consultation proposals for changes to the further education and skills inspections and outcomes statistics’ that we have published. This statement sets out our assessment of the equality, diversity and inclusion implications linked to the proposed new arrangements before consultation.

We will consider any consultation comments received that raise matters related to equality, diversity and inclusion. This may result in changes to the proposals. We will reflect any comments received in our published consultation response, and may publish a revised version of this equality, diversity and inclusion statement.

Proposals

We are proposing some changes to the further education and skills inspections and outcomes statistical publications, namely:

• changes to provider types and provider groups so that similar types of providers delivering similar provision are grouped more effectively together
• carry out a one-time data cleanse for around 50 providers to remove the inspection history from before they came back into funding and came back into scope for Ofsted inspection
• introduce more detailed reporting and deeper insights into the quality of education programmes for young people, adult learning programmes, apprenticeships and provision for learners with high needs across England

How the proposed new arrangements may impact on those with protected characteristics and the 3 PSED aims

We have considered how the proposed new arrangements could have an impact on individuals or groups of people with protected characteristics. We have also considered whether the proposals meet the 3 PSED aims.

We believe the first 2 proposals will not have an impact on those with protected characteristics because they make minimal adjustments to aggregated figures and the available underlying provider-level data.

The third proposal may have an impact in relation to the protected characteristics of age and disability. The experimental quality measures published for ‘education programmes for young people’, ‘adult learning programmes’ and ‘provision for learners with high needs’ are intended to give users clearer information about the quality of this provision across England and therefore make more informed choices about providers.

Eliminating discrimination and advancing equality of opportunity

The UK Statistics Authority Code of Practice provides producers of official statistics with the detailed practices that they must commit to when producing and releasing statistics. As part of this, we ensure that our statistics are equally available to all. We produce statistics, data and guidance that are easily accessible to our users. The needs of different types of users and potential users are considered when determining ways of presenting and releasing the statistics and data. We are committed to being transparent about our statistical production process and public engagement with users to ensure fairness and openness in our approach.

Monitoring and evaluation

We do not anticipate that the proposed new arrangements will have a disproportionate impact on individuals or groups who share protected characteristics. We consider that we have given full and appropriate consideration to all elements of the PSED.

The consultation process on the proposed new arrangements provides the opportunity for all stakeholders to raise any concerns they may have in relation to equality, diversity and inclusion. This statement may need to be revised in light of any responses received. If revised, we will re-publish it with our report on the outcome of the consultation.

We will also monitor the implementation of any changes to our further education and skills inspections and outcomes statistics to ensure that they support all users effectively, and to ensure that no particular group is affected negatively.