Ofsted has accused organisations and individuals profiting from inspection preparation of creating ‘significant fear’ of the inspectorate.
Ofsted has made the comment within its response to the Education Select Committee’s report on Ofsted’s work with schools, published today.
Responding specifically to the pressure of inspection on sectors, Ofsted said, ‘We know that inspection puts pressure on the sectors we inspect, which is why we are determined to strike the right balance between carrying out our role and reducing pressures on the leaders and staff we inspect. We are determined to hear feedback on how we can better strike this balance in the coming months.
‘However, we also suspect that a significant amount of fear about Ofsted inspections is driven by organisations and individuals seeking to profit from inspection preparation, where this is entirely unnecessary. It is a source of particular frustration that some of these individuals previously worked for us.’
