Transparency data

Ofsted's gender pay gap report 2018

Published 19 December 2018

Applies to England

Introduction

From April 2017, employers with 250 or more employees must publish information on their gender pay gap. The pay gap must be reported on in 6 different ways:

• the mean and median gender pay gaps
• the mean and median gender bonus gaps
• the proportion of men and women who received bonuses
• the proportion of men and women according to quartile pay bands

The gender pay gap shows the difference in the average earnings between all men and women in an organisation. It is different to equal pay, which is about the difference in actual earnings of men and women doing equal work (or work of equal value).

The mean gender pay gap is the difference between the mean hourly rate of pay of male full-pay relevant employees and that of female full-pay relevant employees.

The median gender pay gap is the difference between the median hourly rate of pay of male full-pay relevant employees and that of female full-pay relevant employees.

Ofsted’s gender profile

Our overall percentage of female staff (gender profile), at 67%, has increased this year from 63%, and continues to be higher than the Civil Service average of 54%, and the UK average of 51%. Female representation at senior civil servant (SCS) level, at 45%, continues to be higher than the Civil Service average of 43%.

The gender profile has largely changed due to the insourcing of early years inspection on 1 April 2017, which brought in a workforce of 253 people, 94% of whom were female.

We operate a spot rate pay model. This means that salaries are set for each grade. This removes the pay inequality that can arise from the ability to negotiate salaries or from having pay ranges linked to length of service (see Annex A for Ofsted’s grading structures). It therefore supports equal pay for equal work.

Ofsted’s gender pay gap

	2018	2017
Mean gender pay gap	11.4% in favour of men	8.1% in favour of men
Median gender pay gap	19.8% in favour of men	2.3% in favour of men
Mean bonus gender pay gap	14.6% in favour of men (an average of £64)	20.6% favour of men (an average of £196)
Median bonus gender pay gap	25% in favour of men (an average of £50)	16.7% in favour of men (an average of £100)
Proportion receiving bonus	Men 56.7% Women 56.5%	Men 70.7% Women 62.2%

Proportions of male and female in each pay quartile as at 31 March 2018

Grades	Female %	Male %
Lower	65%	35%
Lower middle	71%	29%
Upper middle	77%	23%
Upper	53%	47%

Proportions of male and female in each pay quartile as at 31 March 2017

Grades	Female %	Male %
Lower	64%	36%
Lower middle	65%	35%
Upper middle	68%	32%
Upper	54%	46%

Analysis of Ofsted’s gender pay gap data

Ofsted’s mean gender pay gap has increased from 8.1% to 11.4%, meaning that, on average, men continue to be paid more than women. Analysis shows that the main reason for this continues to be the proportion of male and female employees in different grades. There are more men in the upper pay quartile, where the pay is higher compared with the lower pay quartiles.

Additionally the following have contributed to this year’s gender pay gap:

• The change in the gender pay gap this year is predominantly due to the insourcing of early years inspection in April 2017. Employees who transferred into Ofsted during this had a 94% female gender profile.
• In particular, the insourcing also resulted in the creation of the B2 inspector grade. This has 137 employees whose gender profile is 99% female. This role has a spot rate of pay in the lower middle quartile and therefore impacts on the gender pay gap in favour of men.
• As well as the B2 inspectors referenced above, there are 265 employees in the B1 inspector grade (15% of the Ofsted workforce) and 85% of these are female. The spot rate of pay for this grade is in the upper middle quartile.
• Roles in both the B2 and B1 inspector grades are filled by practitioners from the social care and early years sectors, which are predominantly female sectors.
• The B2 early years inspector, inspection team manager, quality assurance manager and senior quality assurance manager roles will come to an end in early 2019 in line with Ofsted’s early years inspector strategy. The majority of colleagues in these roles have been successful in securing a promotion to the B1 early years regulatory inspector role (at the B1 inspector grade). Therefore, we expect to see an improvement in our gender pay gap for the next reporting period.
• The mean bonus gender pay gap has reduced by 6%. This represents an average ‘bonus payment’ of £64, in favour of men (compared with £196 last year).

Taking action

We are committed to fair pay irrespective of gender and to improving our gender pay gap.

We will continue to promote policies and initiatives to support equal opportunities for our entire workforce.

We will continue to support staff who have caring responsibilities through flexible working practices and procedures.

We will make sure that women continue to have the opportunity to progress in their careers through access to development opportunities supported by career conversations with their line manager.

Our Smarter Working Board has focused on ensuring that Ofsted has the right tools, systems and processes in place to support colleagues in working flexibly.

We will continue to increase the transparency of how our performance-related pay is applied by publishing the distribution of awards through a dashboard. This information is shared with all staff to encourage open discussion about the use of the reward schemes and increase transparency of how it is applied.

We will explore how we can attract more men into our workforce to create a more even gender balance, given that we have more women at most levels of our organisation.

Annex A: Ofsted’s grading structures

APT grading structure

Civil Service (CS) grade equivalent	Grade
Grade 6	Principal Officer
Grade 7	London A APT
Grade 7	National A APT
SEO	London B1 APT
SEO	National B1 APT
HEO	London B2 APT
HEO	National B2 APT
EO	London B3 APT
EO	National B3 APT
AO	London C1 APT
AO	National C1 APT

Inspector grading structure

CS grade equivalent	Grade
Grade 6	Senior HMI
Grade 7	HMI
Grade 7	RIM
SEO	B1 Inspector
HEO	B2 Inspector

Apprentice grading structure

CS grade equivalent	Grade
AO	London C1 Apprentice
AO	National C1 Apprentice