Appointment of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills Contents

Appendix 4: Details of the role and recruitment process

Role profile

The Chief Inspector is responsible for the leadership and management of Ofsted, and as its Accounting Officer, is responsible to Parliament for the use of public funds. The role of Chief Inspector also includes:

Person Specification

Applicants must be able to evidence the following skills and experience:

Recruitment panel

The Secretary of State agreed a selection panel chaired by Sara Nathan OBE, the Public Appointments Assessor (PAA) assigned to the recruitment campaign. Members of the panel were:

Job advertisement

The advertisement was live from 22 February until 21 March on the websites of the Centre for Public Appointments, the Guardian and the Times, appeared in print in the Guardian Social Care and the Sunday Times, and received attention through social media and in sector-specific publications including the Times Educational Supplement.

The advertisement as it appeared in the Guardian:

Job advertisement published by the Department for Education regarding the position of Chief Inspector of Education, Children's Services and skills

Recruitment process

Following approval from the Minister for the Cabinet Office to use headhunters, officials procured Saxton Bampfylde through a fully compliant, open process to assist with promoting the vacancy and securing suitably qualified applicants.

We received 32 applications for the post. 15 of the candidates were male (47%), and 17 female (53%); five candidates declared themselves as from a BAME background (16%), and one declared themselves as LGBT.

The candidates were longlisted and shortlisted in line with OCPA guidance. On 31 March the panel met and longlisted 11 candidates (six male, five female). On 11 April the panel met again. Six candidates were shortlisted, the panel having considered further information on each candidate gathered by Saxton Bampfylde through informal interviews.

Subsequently one shortlisted candidate withdrew ahead of interview. The five remaining shortlisted candidates were interviewed by the panel on 21 April. The panel recommended three appointable candidates (two male, one female). The Secretary of State met each of the appointable candidates before making her choice of preferred candidate.





© Parliamentary copyright 2015

06 July 2016