Consultation outcome

Equalities impact assessment: the response to the Big Listen

Updated 3 September 2024

Introduction

This equality impact assessment sets out how the response to the Big Listen will enable us 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 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 published an initial equality impact assessment as part of the Big Listen consultation. We are now publishing this updated statement alongside our response to the Big Listen consultation and supporting evidence.

We have considered all consultation responses that raised matters relevant to the equality impact of our work.

Changes announced in the response to the Big Listen

When published, the updated schools and further education and skills handbooks will explain the changes to our policies.

The changes announced for September 2024 are:

• notifying schools of ungraded and graded inspections on a Monday, unless they have previously been deferred
• changing the methodology for how we gather evidence and removing deep dives on ungraded inspections
• clarifying how we will apply personal development and behaviour judgements on further education and skills inspections
• piloting a ‘suspend and return’ policy in inspections of state-funded schools and academies where safeguarding is ineffective but all other key judgements are likely to be good or better

How the changes may affect people who share protected characteristics and how they meet the 3 PSED aims

We have considered how the changes could affect individuals or groups of people in terms of protected characteristics. We have also considered whether the changes meet the 3 PSED aims.

The protected characteristics are:

• age
• disability
• gender reassignment
• pregnancy and maternity
• race
• religion or belief
• sex
• sexual orientation
• marriage and civil partnerships

Eliminating discrimination and advancing equality of opportunity

In the consultation, we asked for views on some of our aims and ambitions for our practice and options for how we inspect safeguarding.

We gathered the views of a wide range of stakeholders through the consultation exercises and research, for example focus groups and other events. Our priority was to hear from our stakeholders to understand people’s views and use them to improve our work.

The changes described above are the immediate response to the views we have received and considered. Any other changes that we introduce as a result of the Big Listen may require further consultation and a further equality impact assessment.

We stated strongly throughout the consultation process that our priority is to improve outcomes for disadvantaged and vulnerable children and learners. We heard views on how we can improve our work to advance equality of opportunity. We want to ensure that everything we do as a result of the Big Listen has positive consequences for those with protected characteristics, as well as for disadvantaged and vulnerable groups, such as socio-economically disadvantaged children and children in care.

Some of the changes, for example notifying schools of inspections on Mondays, will help schools to better prepare members of staff or children and learners who share protected characteristics (for example, disability) for the inspection process.

We have not identified any aspect of the changes that would be discriminatory or have a negative impact on disadvantaged or vulnerable children or learners.

Fostering good relations

We believe that the changes announced for September 2024 will not reduce our ability to foster good relations between different groups during inspections.

Our response to the Big Listen is intended to have a positive impact and to foster good relations with, and between, our wide range of stakeholders. This includes children and learners, parents and carers, and the professionals in the sectors we inspect and regulate.

We have taken into account a wide range of views from all those who are interested in or affected by our work.

Monitoring and evaluation

We consider that we have given full and appropriate consideration to all requirements of the Equality Act 2010, including the PSED, in our response to the Big Listen consultation.

We have reviewed and revised this statement to include our assessment of the equality, diversity and inclusion impact of the changes that we have announced from September 2024.

We will keep this equality impact assessment under review as we put the changes in place.

Future proposals for change arising from the Big Listen consultation may require a further separate consultation and/or a fresh equality impact assessment.