School inspection handbook for September 2023
17th July 2023
GOV.UK has released the 2023 Ofsted guidance for inspectors on how to carry out inspections for maintained schools and academies (England), which will come into force 1st September 2023.
Click here to access the guidance page on GOV.UK
The updates include clarification around the role of the Trust during an inspection, how they will judge safeguarding, and what they mean by ‘culture of safeguarding’. As well as:
- A new ‘conduct during inspection’ section.
- Confirmation of the likely date of the next inspection for schools.
- How inspectors will protect the anonymity of individuals when drawing on evidence.
- Confirmation that evidence from pupils, parents, and staff will always be considered in a proportionate way, alongside other evidence.
- Updates to ‘behaviour’ and ‘attendance’ sections.
- Clarity about what we mean by ‘capacity to improve’.
- Clarity about what we mean by ‘culture of safeguarding’.
- Clarification on schools’ obligations in relation to ‘separation by sex’ and the steps inspectors should take in relation to this.
Education inspection framework (EIF):
- A section added on evaluating the ‘culture of safeguarding’.
- ‘Peer-on-peer’ reference is replaced with ‘learner-on-learner’.
- Additional expectations for conduct during inspections.
In addition, the following have been updated for 2023:
- School monitoring handbook
- Early years inspection handbook
- Independent schools inspection handbook
- Additional inspections of independent schools: handbook for inspectors
Please contact us at admin@safeguardingsupport.com or call on 01274 752299 if you have any questions about this or if you would like to talk to us about how we can support you with your Safeguarding needs.
