1 Introduction
1. The Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted)
was established in 1992 as a non-ministerial Government department.
Her Majesty's Chief Inspector (HMCI) reports to the Secretary
of State for Education and Skills and is formally accountable
to Parliament, principally through scrutiny by this Committee.
2. Over the past five years, we have formalised our
scrutiny of Ofsted's activities, taking evidence from HMCI and
his officials twice yearly. The first of these meetings examines
the full range of the inspectorate's work over the year and the
second takes place on the occasion of HMCI's Annual Report, looking
specifically at the issues raised by that document.
3. We believe that the relationship that has evolved
between this Committee and Ofsted since 1999 has resulted in a
sound and mutually beneficial system of scrutiny. We value the
opportunity for regular and direct scrutiny of a non-ministerial
government department and we consider that the work of Ofsted
has been improved as a result of this system of accountability.
We commend this model of Parliamentary monitoring to the Department
for Education and Skills and hope that the Department will keep
it in mind when deciding how to set up similar bodies in the future.
4. In addition to our twice-yearly meetings with
Ofsted, we regularly take evidence from the inspectorate on matters
relating to our inquiries across the range of the Department for
Education and Skills' responsibilities. We are grateful to HMCI
and his colleagues for their valuable contribution to our recent
inquiry into secondary education and we look forward to hearing
from them again in future inquiries, particularly given Ofsted's
forthcoming role in the inspection of children's services.
5. The conclusions and recommendations contained
within this report arise from oral evidence sessions held on Wednesday
5 November 2003 and Monday 8 March 2004. On both occasions we
took evidence from Mr David Bell, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector
of Schools, Mr David Taylor, Director of Inspection, Mr Robert
Green, Strategy and Resources Directorate and Mr Maurice Smith,
Director of Early Years. The report also incorporates the written
evidence submitted by interested parties in connection with these
two sessions.
6. In addition to HMCI's Annual Report, Standards
and Quality 2002-03, discussed in oral evidence taken on 8
March 2004, Ofsted has published a number of strategic documents
over the past year. Ofsted's Strategic Plan 2004 to 2007,
The Future of Inspection and most recently A New Relationship
with Schools set out the inspectorate's vision of its future
role.[1] These documents
informed our questioning during the oral evidence sessions and
we refer to them throughout this report.
7. On many of the occasions that this Committee has
met with Ofsted, it has been our pleasure to receive evidence
from Mr David Taylor. Mr Taylor retired from his role as Director
of Inspection on 6 April 2004 after more than 25 years with Ofsted,
and we take this opportunity to record the Committee's appreciation
of the valuable contribution that he has made to the work of Ofsted
and this Committee. In 2003-04, Ofsted made other staffing
changes as part of a senior-level reorganisation, which we discuss
later in this report.
1 Strategic Plan 2004-2007, HMI 1834, October 2003;
The Future of Inspection: a consultation paper, HMI 2057, February
2004; A New Relationship with Schools, Department for Education
and Skills/Ofsted, June 2004. Back
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