Corporate report

Big Listen action monitoring report: December 2024

Published 19 December 2024

Applies to England

Introduction

We launched the Big Listen in early March 2024; it ran until the end of May. It gave professionals, children and learners, parents and carers, and the public an opportunity to give their feedback on our work. We published our response in early September. This set out our determination to retain the confidence of the people we work for – children and their parents and carers – and regain the confidence of the dedicated professionals who work with us to improve children’s life chances. In particular, we explained how we will put the children who are vulnerable or disadvantaged at the heart of what we do. If we get it right for them, we get it right for all.

Alongside the Big Listen, Dame Christine Gilbert carried out an independent learning review into Ofsted’s response to the death of headteacher Ruth Perry. This review looked at the actions we took in response to hearing about Ruth Perry’s death, our communication and engagement with stakeholders, and the support we offered internally to staff.

The first recommendation of Dame Christine Gilbert’s review was:

Ofsted’s actions following the reports of both the Coroner and the Education Select Committee should continue with a sense of urgency. The outstanding actions and other improvement and development initiatives (including those arising from the Big Listen) should be integrated into a single, overarching improvement and development plan which is owned by His Majesty’s Chief Inspector (HMCI), staff and the Board. This top-level plan and regular monitoring reports should be published for transparency on Ofsted’s website.

We fully accepted this recommendation. Ofsted’s strategy delivery unit is now responsible for all the actions from our response to the Coroner and the Education Select Committee. This unit monitors how we are putting the actions into place across the organisation, through the ‘Ofsted 2025’ programme. The Board is overseeing and scrutinising how we do this. The Big Listen response provided that single overarching improvement and development plan, owned by HMCI, staff and the Board.

We will publish regular monitoring reports on our progress in completing the actions after every Board meeting. This is the first of those monitoring reports.

We have used the term ‘providers’ (of education and care) throughout this report, for ease of reading. We use this term to cover all of those that we inspect and/or regulate.

Our objectives

In the Big Listen response and in response to Dame Christine Gilbert’s review, we set out a combined 132 actions in order to:

1. reset our relationship with those we regulate and inspect, working collaboratively with them to put children and learners first
2. foster a culture of integrity in which we always treat people with professionalism, courtesy, empathy and respect
3. be a learning organisation that operates transparently, listens to challenge and takes action to change

We have listed the 15 sub-sets of commitments that sit within these 3 objectives. We have also listed all completed actions to date and explained progress towards those not yet completed.

Total Big Listen actions completed: 42/132

Objective 1

1. We will reset our relationship with those we regulate and inspect, working collaboratively with them to put children and learners first

1.1 We will reform our education inspection framework and will introduce report cards to help raise standards and improve how we inform parents, carers, children and learners.

Update on progress

We are working closely with the Department for Education (DfE) and key stakeholders on a renewed education inspection framework (EIF) alongside a new way of reporting our findings through a report card. We are on track to consult on both elements of this work in January 2025, ahead of implementation in September 2025. This includes removing the single-word judgement for overall effectiveness across all education remits by September 2025.

1.2 We will improve our inspection processes to – as far as possible – reduce the anxiety of inspection while always putting children first.

Completed actions

We have piloted a new approach for graded inspections of schools. We have a new ‘suspend and return’ policy for schools that are judged inadequate for leadership and management solely due to ineffective safeguarding. In this circumstance, we will consider leaders capable of resolving the safeguarding issues within 3 months, so will withhold our judgement and report. We will revisit the school within 3 months to make sure it has improved safeguarding, and complete the inspection.

We have made clearer what inspectors are looking for when they review a school’s single central record when inspecting safeguarding. We made this update to the latest school inspection handbook.

We have implemented a policy to give notice for all routine school inspections on a Monday. Our notifications for all routine (graded and ungraded) inspections now take place on Monday, unless an inspection has previously been deferred or is an urgent inspection.

Our Deputy Chief Operating Officer (Delivery) and National Director, Education lead a rigorous consistency review with regional directors on Fridays to review the previous week’s inspection findings.

We have made immediate changes to our practice for ungraded school inspections.

We have agreed a protocol with the section 48 inspectorates (that inspect denominational education and collective worship in schools with a religious character) to avoid section 48 and Ofsted inspections taking place at the same time, wherever possible.

We have clarified how we will apply personal development and behaviour judgements in further education (FE) and skills inspections in our September 2024 handbook update.

Update on progress

We are considering further changes to improve our inspection processes as part of reforms to the EIF (see section 1.1).

We are building in similar consistency meetings for inspectors right through the organisation to make sure we apply a consistent approach across all inspections.

We are working on how we will reduce the burden of inspection on FE and skills providers. We will consult with the FE and skills sector to make sure that our notice periods and the size of our inspection teams are proportionate to the size and complexity of the providers we inspect.

We are developing an approach to tailor early years inspections to different types of providers and their sizes.

We are pausing inspection of initial teacher education (ITE) providers while we make permanent changes to inspection, to reduce the burden of inspection.

We are working closely with the DfE, Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), Care Quality Commission (CQC) and stakeholder partners on improving area special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) inspections.

1.3 We will strengthen the regulation and inspection of children’s social care, in partnership with the government and the sector.

Completed actions

We have opened a pre-registration online helpline so that children’s social care providers wanting to open provision, and commissioners seeking provision for children with the most complex needs, can seek advice.

Update on progress

We are working closely with the DfE and key stakeholders as we consider how we can strengthen our inspection frameworks to align with the reforms and to stop being a barrier to providers working with children with multiple needs. This includes removing the single-word judgement for overall effectiveness by April 2026 for inspections of local authority children’s services (ILACS) and the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass). This is likely to be the same for those we inspect under the social care common inspection framework (SCCIF). We want to make sure we align changes with government reform, wherever possible, so that we do not create unnecessary successive changes.

We are determined to learn from our approach in supported accommodation to better include views and experiences of children and care-experienced young people, in order to improve our regulation and inspection work.

1.4 We will work with the government to make sure children are kept safe and learning wherever they receive their education or care, and to tackle unscrupulous and/or fraudulent behaviour.

Update on progress

We are working closely with the DfE and key stakeholders on policies to keep children safe wherever they receive their education or care, and to tackle unscrupulous and/or fraudulent behaviour. These changes are for the government to make, which is why we are working closely with the DfE to realise them. This includes legislative changes that the government is intending to make in order to help us tackle unregistered schools and children’s homes, and strengthen the regulation of schools, early years and children’s social care. Some of these proposals were set out in the DfE’s policy paper on children’s social care reform.

As part of these changes, we are working with the DfE on revising the SCCIF in line with wider social care reforms. We are also discussing with the DfE when to remove the single-word judgement for overall effectiveness and what to replace it with. Timing relies on legislative timescales; we intend to make these changes in spring 2026.

We are also working with the DfE to develop new annual reviews of safeguarding, attendance and off-rolling in schools, as proposed in the government’s manifesto.

1.5 We will support government childcare plans by enabling childminders to work more flexibly on non-domestic premises.

Completed actions

We will register a new type of early years provider for childminders without domestic premises to help deliver the government’s plans for childcare. This includes childminders who work out of school-based settings.

Update on progress

All actions complete.

Objective 2

2. We will foster a culture of integrity in which we always treat people with professionalism, courtesy, empathy and respect

2.1 We have introduced new training and policies to make sure our inspectors deal sensitively and consistently with well-being concerns.

Completed actions

We delayed schools and FE and skills inspections for the first few weeks of January 2024. This was so that we could run mental health awareness training for all inspectors, which will help them to respond to signs of stress and anxiety. We committed to giving that training to our entire inspection workforce by the end of March 2024. We have done that.

We worked closely with Mental Health First Aid England to make a bespoke induction package on mental health. This now forms part of our general induction for all inspectors.

We have introduced a new policy and clear process to allow inspectors to pause an inspection. This includes where they have concerns about the well-being of a leader or staff member and need support from the body responsible for that person.

We have introduced a provider contact helpline. Providers can use this to speak to a senior person in Ofsted during or immediately after an inspection, if they have concerns.

We have set up a national team for our inspectors and providers to help with any well-being concerns during inspection.

Update on progress

We will evaluate the impact of the training and update it as required. We will make sure inspectors receive updates throughout their careers. We have re-contracted Mental Health First Aid England to deliver training to new staff.

2.2 We will launch the Ofsted Academy to improve the quality of recruitment and training of our workforce and improve the quality of inspections and regulation.

Completed actions

We have launched the Ofsted Academy. This will invest in our highly-skilled inspectors and administrative, technical and professional staff by drawing together induction, training, learning and professional development work in one place. It will increase our transparency. We will also use it to share the excellent practice we see in the sectors we inspect.

We believe that by improving the recruitment, training and development of our workforce, we will improve the quality of inspections. This will then raise standards in the sectors we inspect and improve the lives of children and learners.

The Ofsted Academy will improve training and practice for inspectors in SEND across all provider types. This was a specific commitment in the Big Listen in response to feedback.

The Ofsted Academy will improve training and practice for inspectors in children’s social care. This includes making sure the training of our inspectors is even better informed by best practice from the sectors we regulate and inspect.

The Ofsted Academy will help us to recruit inspectors and staff from all remits we inspect, so that we can allocate them on inspections that better match their specialisms.

The Ofsted Academy will improve consistency across inspections. It will help us to invest in our workforce by making sure inspectors have the right expertise to make judgements in different settings and for different types of providers.

The Ofsted Academy is a key part of how we are building a positive culture. It contributes to embedding Ofsted’s values and reinforcing our behaviours of professionalism, courtesy, empathy and respect.

The Ofsted Academy will help us to embed cultural sensitivity into our training. We want to make sure that no provider is disadvantaged because of their religious or cultural context.

We have designed the Ofsted Academy in collaboration with our staff. We have engaged inspectors and administrative, technical and professional staff in the design of this new approach to professional learning and development. We will continue using their feedback and views as we develop the Academy.

Update on progress

We are working on increasing our transparency by sharing our training and making our processes visible. We put that training in context by adding commentary from experienced inspectors, which will help avoid misconceptions. We have already published some training materials this term.

To make sure we match inspectors’ specialisms and experience to the area they inspect, we are carrying out new surveys of their expertise and experience. We are also working on how, as part of the Academy, we will introduce secondments for inspectors to spend time working in providers. This will make sure their practice remains current, especially focusing on working across groups of providers.

2.3 We have updated our code of conduct to improve the relationship between Ofsted and those we inspect and regulate.

Completed actions

We have updated and published our code of conduct. It sets out the professionalism, courtesy, empathy and respect that providers can expect from Ofsted staff. It also sets out the integrity and cooperation that we expect from providers, as the basis for a collaborative working relationship.

Update on progress

All actions complete.

2.4 We will track whether perceptions of our culture are improving over time.

Update on progress

Through the actions listed here, and our ongoing work to reform Ofsted, we are changing our culture. We will track the impact of this over time. We will regularly commission independent polling to ensure the efficacy of our work. This will include asking professionals across all the sectors we work with for their views on Ofsted’s culture. This will include our openness, our organisational integrity, and whether inspectors are demonstrating our values of professionalism, empathy, courtesy and respect. The Ofsted Board will scrutinise the data we gather to help us constantly refine and improve our performance.

Objective 3

3. We will be a learning organisation that operates transparently, listens to challenge and takes action to change

3.1 We commissioned an independent learning review into our response to Ruth Perry’s death.

Completed actions

In April, in response to the Coroner’s Prevention of Future Deaths report, we commissioned an independent learning review into Ofsted’s response to Ruth Perry’s death. This was led by Dame Christine Gilbert. It looked at the actions we took in response to hearing about Ruth Perry’s death, our communication and engagement with stakeholders, and the support we offered internally to staff.

We have published the findings of Dame Christine Gilbert’s review and our our response. We will take immediate action on the findings to improve our policies and practice.

Our new strategy delivery unit is now responsible for all the actions from our response to the Coroner and the Education Select Committee. This unit monitors how we are putting the actions into place across the organisation, through the ‘Ofsted 2025’ programme. The Board will oversee and scrutinise how we do this. They will hold regular challenge sessions, involving the Chair and HMCI, to interrogate the delivery of actions. The Head of Legal takes part in those challenge sessions to make sure we hold ourselves to high levels of accountability and internal challenge. We will also give regular updates to the whole Board.

Update on progress

We responded to the review when it was published and accepted all but one of the recommendations. The first recommendation was for Ofsted to track progress more systematically and transparently. That is our intention with these action monitoring reports. The other recommendations were all responded to as actions we set out in the Big Listen; the reports will cover our progress with these.

3.2 We will improve our engagement with children, parents, carers and providers through our inspections.

Update on progress

We have carried out a mapping exercise to review how we currently engage children, parents, carers and providers through our inspections, to identify any gaps. This includes how we capture the views of children, parents and carers in early years and childcare settings, as well as parents, carers and learners in FE and skills providers. We will imminently appoint a contractor and start the initial set-up phase of a project to develop new survey questions.

We are considering how we actively involve children and care-experienced young people in developing our approaches to regulation and inspection. We want to build on the work we have done in supported accommodation, where children informed our thinking every step of the way.

We are in the process of commissioning an independent study to give us external advice to help us reform the way we engage with stakeholders. The study will make evidence-informed recommendations to improve how we engage stakeholders through surveys and on inspection across early years, schools and FE and skills. Phase 1 will focus on behavioural insights to increase response rates and improve engagement with stakeholders. Phase 2 will give advice on survey design and cognitive testing of new survey questions.

We will do an internal mapping exercise on our current practices and gaps in how we collect the views of children, parents, carers and providers. We will also engage with other international inspectorates to review best practice.

3.3 We will establish 6 national hubs to improve consistency across all our work.

Completed actions

We have set up the ‘complaints about Ofsted’ hub, which brings all complaints work into one central place. Inspectors assessing complaints are now from a different region to the one from which the complaint originated. We believe this will lead to a more consistent approach.

We have set up the ‘inspection welfare, support and guidance’ hub. This is one national point of contact offering support and guidance to inspectors and to those being inspected. It will make sure advice and guidance are consistent across the country. It will also help us identify emerging issues so we can improve our guidance, frameworks and training.

We have set up the ‘quality assurance and professional standards’ hub. This is to set high national standards for our quality assurance work. A team of expert inspectors work centrally to make sure the evaluations we make in our reports meet nationally set standards. If standards are not met, senior inspectors oversee a review of the evidence and reporting. They will then take action, for example by arranging for inspectors to get additional evidence.

We have set up the ‘enhanced consistency and moderation’ hub. This gives additional scrutiny to the reports on education providers causing us the greatest concern, independently of the original inspection team. The hub carefully reviews the inspection reports and comments from providers. It also carries out full evidence base reviews.

We have set up the ‘regulation delivery prioritisation’ hub. This makes sure our resource is allocated to manage peaks in regulatory and registration work in different parts of the country, so that we work in the most effective way and in the best interests of children.

We have set up the ‘area insights and provider intelligence’ hub. This brings together inspectors and experts centrally to consider intelligence about localities, groups and providers. It makes sure that we investigate complaints proportionately and consistently. It will work to make sure that schools understand how we will use the information in complaints when inspecting their school. It also supports our ‘area insights’ work to recognise better where providers of all types do great work in challenging circumstances, and to point out how local and national decision-makers can address local challenges.

Update on progress

All actions complete.

3.4 We are changing how we handle complaints to regain the confidence of those we inspect and regulate with our processes.

Completed actions

We have robust systems in place to challenge our own findings and ensure an appropriate level of independence in our complaints processes. We have set up the ‘complaints about Ofsted’ hub, as explained above in section 3.3. Inspectors assessing complaints are now from a different region to the one from which the complaint originated.

We have introduced the opportunity for complainants to talk to the investigating officer so that the investigating officer fully understands the concerns being raised.

We have set up a new provider contact helpline so that leaders can speak to a senior inspector at any time during an inspection, or afterwards.

We now provide an earlier opportunity for complainants to appeal to the Independent Complaints Adjudication Service for Ofsted (ICASO) when they are dissatisfied with our complaints investigation.

We have piloted complaints panels for the schools and early years sectors. These panels include external sector representatives, including from trade unions. They review whether we have handled a sample of complaints fairly and in line with our policy. This pilot was successful, receiving positive feedback on the robustness of the process, and will continue to run regularly throughout the year and for all remits.

Update on progress

We have a range of formal processes in place to make sure that our inspection and regulatory work is of high quality. These processes include: visits to directly observe inspectors’ professional interactions with providers; scrutinising the evidence gathered and decisions reached; and reviewing inspection reports before they are finalised and published.

In the vast majority of cases, our quality assurance procedures confirm that inspections are carried out to a high standard, that evidence supports the inspection findings, and that reports are clear and fully explain the judgements given. Where we identify a mistake, we put this right.

Through our quality assurance processes this year, we changed the overall judgement on 120 occasions. We also deemed 116 inspections to be incomplete, leading to further visits to gather additional evidence.

3.5 We will become more transparent, and will do more to share our insights and data.

Completed actions

We have published data tables from the Big Listen (adult consultation, IFF research study with providers and professionals, and NatCen research with parents, carers and the public).

We have published a review of the quality of young offender institutions (YOIs), which we carried out jointly with His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP). The review made recommendations, including to the Ministry of Justice, to improve education for children in YOIs.

Our annual report this year includes a bibliography of all of our statistical releases and publications. We will continue to include this in future annual reports.

Update on progress

We set out numerous actions committing to be transparent across all of our work. This includes being more transparent about our training materials through the new Ofsted Academy, and making inspection activity and underpinning evidence more transparent (see section 2.2).

We are making good progress on sharing the raw data from the Big Listen with the research community and improving our data releases. We will also continue to publish our official statistics and management information releases, which show the outcomes of our core inspection and regulatory work.

As part of the Big Listen response, we published full data tables for the consultation and externally commissioned work with parents, carers and professionals. We are finalising an agreement with the UK Data Service to enable us to share the raw data from our consultation. The UK data archive is the UK’s largest repository for quantitative and qualitative social science and humanities research data. By the end of 2024, we hope to have deposited the dataset.

3.6 We are increasing our engagement and consultation with the Ofsted workforce and external stakeholders.

Completed actions

We have set up 7 external reference groups. They will enhance our existing stakeholder and provider groups, and give us independent advice and challenge across the full breadth of our work. They will share ideas and give us feedback, including by examining our frameworks, looking at training and inspection design and making recommendations for improvement. After a trial period of 2 meetings, we will review: how the groups are working, membership, frequency of meetings and terms of reference.

We have built the ‘upward communication’, which began with the Big Listen, into our culture and ways of working by continuing to closely engage our staff in our work.

We have introduced a single point of contact for early years within Ofsted.

Update on progress

We are increasing our engagement and consultation with stakeholders, working closely with the DfE and key stakeholders as part of our inspection reform plans.