Guidance

Summary of changes

Updated 5 April 2024

Applies to England

April 2024

Paragraph 3: clarification that, when applying the handbook, inspectors will take appropriate action to comply with Ofsted’s Equality Act duties.

Paragraph 104: minor amendment to provide clarification that inspectors will ask the senior leader and nominees who is responsible for their welfare who may be contacted where there are serious concerns.

Paragraph 159: clarification regarding Ofsted’s pausing policy.

Paragraphs 162 to 163: clarifications regarding updated arrangements for publishing reports in line with Ofsted’s new complaints process.

Paragraphs 167 to 170: clarifications regarding updated arrangements for quality assurance and handling concerns and complaints in line with Ofsted’s new complaints process.

January 2024

In this update, we have made to the following changes to the further education and skills inspection handbook:

Paragraph 5: clarification regarding Ofsted’s role as an inspectorate of further education and skills providers, and not of the specific individuals that work in them.

Paragraph 9: clarification regarding the expectations for inspectors’ conduct during inspections.

Paragraph 102: minor clarifications regarding the shadow nominee.

Paragraph 104: clarifications relating to the notification call.

Paragraph 112: clarification relating to the telephone planning call and who may attend and that inspectors should take account of the well-being of leaders and staff and adjust their approach or activity as appropriate in the best interest of learners.

Paragraph 114: clarification that the lead inspector will give the provider an opportunity to raise any issues or concerns or to seek clarification before the inspection and will explain how the provider will be able to raise any matters during the inspection itself.

Paragraph 160: clarification regarding meetings of the inspection team during the inspection which involve the inspection nominee.

Paragraph 165: clarification that the provider has an opportunity to raise any issues or concerns or to seek clarification about the inspection, and update that the provider can also contact Ofsted on the working day after the end of the inspection, if necessary.

Paragraph 168: update that we expect leaders to share the inspection outcome and findings with whoever they deem appropriate and that leaders may also share inspection outcomes, in confidence, with others who are not involved with the provider but the information should not be made public.

Paragraph 173: clarification that there may be exceptional occasions when it is difficult or inappropriate to continue with an inspection and the inspection needs to be paused.  There could be a range of possible eventualities that could give rise to this. Each situation will be considered on a case-by-case basis. We will apply our incomplete inspection policy where appropriate.

Paragraph 177: clarification that if an issue remains unresolved, the provider can contact Ofsted on the working day after the end of an inspection. This provides the opportunity to raise informal concerns about the inspection process or outcomes or ask about next steps or other matters.

July 2023 (for September 2023 version)

In this update, we have:

• added T levels into the scope of regular inspection under the EIF
• updated the inspection notification for full inspections of large and complex providers to 5 or 6 days
• provided clarity on how we inspect safeguarding

March 2023

Paragraph 86: Updated the adult learning programmes provision coverage to clarify that we will inspect skills bootcamps as part of our regular inspections from 1 April 2023.

December 2022

Paragraph 98: Added details about shadow nominees.

July 2022

Paragraphs 8 to 10: renamed and updated this section to focus on inspectors’ powers to gather, use and store evidence.

Removed the ‘Inspection and the COVID-19 pandemic’ section and incorporated this as relevant throughout. Removed all references to ‘transitional arrangements’.

Paragraph 167: Added information on how a provider can use the Ofsted logo if judged good or outstanding.

Paragraphs 291 to 304: Added a new section on an additional written sub-judgement that inspectors will make on enhanced full inspections of colleges and designated institutions from September 2022, and the evaluation criteria for that sub-judgement. The sub-judgement will be on the contribution of colleges and designated institutions to meeting skills needs.

Added references throughout to how enhanced inspections of colleges’ contributions to skills needs will be carried out. See in particular paragraphs 52 (types of inspection), 94 (before the inspection), 100 to 103 (notification of enhanced inspections of colleges), 112 (planning), 122 (stakeholder questionnaire), 124 (inspectors), 133 and 154 (meetings during inspection) and 218 (explanation that the college skills need sub-judgement will be linked to the quality of education and leadership and management key judgements).

February 2022

Paragraphs 10 (footnote 7) and 253: the COVID-19 transitional arrangements covered in paragraphs 10 to 22 and 253 will continue and will be reviewed in time for September 2022 to see if they are still needed.

Paragraphs 30 to 34: changes to the inspection of outstanding providers. All FE colleges, sixth form colleges and designated institutions will receive a full inspection between September 2022 and September 2025. From April 2022 all providers that deliver apprenticeships (and are not a FE college, sixth form college or designated institution) will receive a full inspection by September 2025 unless they have had a full inspection since April 2021. Other outstanding providers will receive a short inspection by September 2025 if they were judged to be outstanding after September 2015. In the meantime, we will continue to carry out full inspections of providers that were found outstanding before September 2015 in line with existing arrangements.

Paragraphs 36 to 40: changes to the inspection of good providers. All FE colleges, sixth form colleges and designated institutions will receive a full inspection between September 2022 and September 2025. From April 2022 all providers that deliver apprenticeships will receive a full inspection by September 2025 unless they have had a full inspection since April 2021. Other good providers will receive a short inspection by September 2025 but may receive a full inspection where appropriate. In the meantime, we will continue to inspect good providers in line with existing arrangements.

Paragraphs 43 to 44: changes to the inspection of new providers. New providers that have started delivering since April 2021 will normally receive their new provider monitoring visit within 18 months of starting to deliver. From April 2022 onwards, new providers will normally receive their first full inspection within 18 months of the publication of their monitoring visit report. That will apply to providers whose monitoring visit reports are published from 1 April 2022 onwards.

Paragraphs 49 to 52: changes to the inspection of new providers of level 6 and 7 apprenticeship provision. From April 2022, new providers of level 6 and 7 only apprenticeship provision will normally receive their first new provider monitoring visit within 18 months of 1 April 2021. A new provider of this kind will normally receive its full inspection within 18 months of the publication of its monitoring visit report. That will apply to providers whose monitoring visit reports are published from 1 April 2022. New providers starting to deliver any apprenticeship provision including level 6 or 7 apprenticeships (or other relevant funded provision) for the first time from April 2021 onwards will normally receive their new provider monitoring visit within 18 months of starting to deliver. From April 2022 onwards, new providers will normally receive their first full inspection within 18 months of the publication of their monitoring visit report. That will apply to providers whose monitoring visit reports are published from 1 April 2022 onwards.

August 2021

Paragraphs 275 to 279: Following changes to legislation and statutory guidance, we will apply the same expectations regarding sexual harassment and online abuse set out in paragraphs 275 to 279 to independent learning providers, independent specialist colleges and 16 to 19 academies that have students under 18 as we do to further education and sixth form colleges.

This will apply to inspections with effect from 1 November 2021.

June 2021

Paragraphs 10 to 24: clarification that the transitional arrangements we currently apply to take account of COVID-19’s impact are extended, with necessary modifications, to cover the transitional period up to March 2022.

Paragraph 63: clarification of the themes used for new provider monitoring visits to new providers delivering 16 to 18 education programmes for young people.

Paragraph 119: clarification that as part of the inspection of safeguarding arrangements, inspectors will meet with learners and this will normally involve meeting with specific groups of learners, in particular single-sex groups, where the provider is a college with children and young people.

Paragraph 132: clarification that inspection activity will include reviewing records about safeguarding, including those relating to sexual harassment and violence and online sexual abuse.

Paragraph 244: clarification that transitional arrangements concerning curriculum review will be reviewed in March 2022.

Paragraph 247: recognition that COVID-19 may have affected the transition to further education of some groups of learners with particular needs.

Paragraphs 268 to 279: safeguarding section updated to take into account the findings of Ofsted’s ‘Review of sexual abuse in schools and colleges’ in the context of further education and skills provision. We have added a new section entitled: ‘Sexual harassment and violence and online sexual abuse between learners who are children or young people’ (paragraphs 275 to 279).

April 2021

Paragraph 10 to 25: a new section on ‘Inspection during the COVID-19 pandemic’ has been included. This covers:

• why changes have been made and how these changes will be reviewed
• short sections on Inspection preparation and planning, curriculum, personal development, remote education, external data, leadership, safeguarding and remote element of inspection (which are reflected as necessary elsewhere in part 1 and in part 2)

Paragraphs 29 to 34 have been updated to reflect the removal of the exemption from inspection of certain outstanding providers and set out the inspection implications.

Paragraphs 35 to 40 and 49 to 71 (various): 35 to 40, 49 to 71 (various): text and footnotes updated to reflect the temporarily extended inspection intervals on account of the suspension of routine inspections during the COVID-19 pandemic from March 2020.

Paragraphs 41 to 48 and 90: additional section to cover the extension of Ofsted apprenticeship inspection to include inspection of apprenticeship training at level 6 and above (degree and non-degree). This resulted in other consequential modifications/clarifications throughout the handbook.

Paragraphs 72 to 79: additional section to cover progress monitoring visits which occurred during the suspension of routine inspection activity.

Paragraphs 160 to 170: ‘After the inspection’ section updated to reflect new arrangements for publishing reports and handling concerns and complaints from September 2020.

Paragraphs 171 to 202 (various): ‘Short inspection’ section updated to reflect the fact that short inspections may be carried out to currently outstanding providers, as well as to currently good providers, where they were found to be outstanding from September 2015.

Paragraph 208 clarifies that a provider will be inadequate under a particular judgement if one or more of the inadequate criteria apply, unless the inadequate criteria apply solely due to the impact of COVID-19.