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Guidance

Further education and skills inspection: toolkit, operating guides and information

Guidance for inspectors and providers on inspecting further education and skills providers in England under the renewed education inspection framework.

Updates to this page

From:
Ofsted
Published:
9 September 2025
Last updated:
28 August 2026
Show all updates

  1. See the 'Summary of changes'.

  2. We added new versions of the inspection toolkit, the operating guide for inspectors, the monitoring operating guide for inspectors, and the inspection information document that will come into force in September 2026. The summary of changes document lists what has changed.

  3. We have added the further education and skills monitoring operating guide for inspectors, for use from 10 November 2025.

  4. First published.

Applies to England

Documents

Further education and skills inspection toolkit

PDF, 909 KB, 57 pages

Further education and skills operating guide for inspectors

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Further education and skills monitoring operating guide for inspectors

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Inspection information for further education and skills providers

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Summary of changes

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Details

Find guidance for further education (FE) and skills inspections in England:

  • FE and skills inspection toolkit – what inspectors and providers use to discuss the quality of provision on inspection
  • FE and skills inspection operating guide – a step-by-step guide for inspectors on how to inspect an FE and skills provider
  • information about FE and skills inspections – for provider staff and leaders, parents and carers and the wider public
  • FE and skills monitoring operating guide – guidance for inspectors on how to monitor FE and skills providers

Earlier versions of the further education and skills inspection toolkit, operating guides and information are available in The National Archives.

Education inspection framework

The education inspection framework explains why we inspect FE and skills providers (and other educational provision), including the legal requirements.

This guidance replaced the further education and skills inspection handbook from 10 November 2025.

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