Ofsted aims to serve the interests of children and young people, their parents and the community by providing impartial and authoritative inspection, evaluation and reporting of the quality and standards of education and childcare in England.

The inspection process is designed to:

• Ensure accountability through public reporting
• Contribute to the improvement of education
• Contribute to the improvement of childcare.

Current focuses

The Government has recently published the Children Bill following its earlier White Paper, Every Child Matters. It proposes that Ofsted should lead the development of inspections of children’s services in local authority areas jointly with the other inspectorates involved within an integrated approach. This will have potentially significant implications for some existing inspection activities.

Inspection arrangements which look at the range of education and childcare throughout a community, concentrating on the needs of parents and the quality of the varied services that provide for children and young people aged 0 - 19 years will be developed.

Ofsted has identified three strands for further work:

• To evaluate in greater depth the effects of major Government policies for raising standards in education e.g. The Primary National Strategy, Key Stage 3 strategy, changes in curriculum and examinations post 14 and workforce reform
• To ensure that Ofsted’s inspection findings are disseminated in the most effective ways possible and that they have the greatest possible impact on the quality and standards of education and care.
• A review of inspection as one aspect of the Government’s overall strategy for standards and accountability in education. The framework for school inspections has recently been revised and the new version has been in use in inspections since September 2003. Further changes are likely from September 2004.

Cocentra’s links to Ofsted

We offer a range of conferences and training opportunities for schools in order to update them on the latest Ofsted proposals. Examples are:

“Will your school be ready for Ofsted?” — Updating on the latest Ofsted Framework for Inspection, and:

“How well do you know your school?” — specific guidance within the growing focus on school self-evaluation and review, not just within inspection but as good practice.

To view these go to courses and conferences.