Corporate report

Ofsted Board minutes: 11 December 2025

Updated 5 March 2026

Applies to England

Present

Dame Christine Gilbert (Ofsted Board Chair)

Sir Hamid Patel (senior board member)

Sir Martyn Oliver (HMCI)

Felicity Gillespie

Martin Spencer (online)

Baroness Laura Wyld

Jo Moran

Executive attendance

Louise Grainger (Chief Financial Officer) (items 4 to 14)

Lee Owston (National Director, Education) (items 4 to 14)

Yvette Stanley (National Director, Regulation and Social Care) (online, items 4 to 14)

Jason Bradbury (Director, Insights and Research) (items 4 to 14)

James McNeillie (Regional Director, South West and West Midlands) (item 8)

Rory Gribbell (Director, Strategy and Engagement) (items 4 to 14)

Apologies

David Meyer

Jon Yates

Matthew Coffey (Deputy HMCI)

Juliet Chua (Director General, Schools Group, Department for Education (DfE))

Board Secretary

Department for Education Observer

There was no Department for Education observer.

Also in attendance

Principal Private Secretary to HMCI, Head of Private Office  

Executive support

Private Secretary to HMCI

Corporate Governance Officer

Status

Approved at the board meeting on 25 February 2026.

1. Welcome, apologies and declarations of interest

The chair opened the meeting and thanked board members for their attendance. She noted the apologies for the meeting. No new declarations of interest were made.

2. Agree minutes, consider matters arising and update on open actions

The board approved the minutes of the last meeting.

The board noted updates to all actions from the previous meeting.

3. Chair and board member update

The chair gave a brief update on the recruitment of new board members and highlighted that they may not be in post until February. The board agreed that the planned strategy board session, as part of a board development session, should take place once the new board members are in post.

The chair noted her engagement with stakeholders since the previous board meeting and her new support and challenge meetings with Ofsted staff. The chair also updated on her regular attendance at the Ofsted national consistency panel.

4. HMCI update

HMCI provided an update on his priorities since the last meeting. This included: all external and ministerial engagement; priority legal cases; executive staffing changes; analysis of the impact and reception of inspection reform to date; and further reform to come in Ofsted’s inspection of local authorities’ provision of children’s social care (ILACS).  

HMCI also noted a range of sector feedback on inspections so far.

The board received an update on the recent recruitment and appointment of His Majesty’s Inspectors (HMI). HMCI also provided a brief update on the social care HMI and Regulatory Inspector (RI) workforce to support inspection of local authority children’s services (ILACS) and the social care common inspection framework (SCCIF) reform, including timescales for the wider system landscape and Ofsted’s role in this.

5. Inspection improvement update

The board was updated on the first few weeks of a ‘steady and assured’ start to inspection, including feedback from providers and the timelines for report publication. They were also updated on implementation challenges, which are being mitigated through inspector training.

The board noted feedback regarding understanding of the new grades, and highlighted the need to define, explain and clarify these publicly. HMCI assured board members that teams are working on different products and engagement to explain the changes to different audiences. The board was also given assurance that the grades are explained as part of the inspection process. Attendees agreed that more needed to be done to articulate the meaning of different grades, particularly for parents.

The board noted the process for monitoring and evaluating the consistency of inspection outcomes and asked for greater clarity around the quality assurance process for all reports.

The board discussed the volume of monitoring inspections under the renewed framework and raised Ofsted’s capacity to deliver these inspections. HMCI gave assurance that Ofsted will have the capacity to deliver what has been publicly committed to.

The board thanked the inspection improvement team, and inspectors themselves, for their hard work over recent months.

The board was updated on proposals for ILACS and SCCIF reform, and the legislative changes needed for these to be consulted on and implemented. They were also updated on the timescales of this work and engagement with the Department for Education and other stakeholders. The board noted the progress and volume of the work undertaken.

6. Evaluation of the implementation and impact of the changes to education inspection

The board noted and agreed the programme of further evaluation activities with parents and carers, children and learners and inspectors. A further update will be brought to the board in February. The chair envisages the board will play an active role in overseeing evaluation, including engaging with small groups of those inspected and with inspectors themselves.

The board discussed whether the evaluation programme could investigate whether the new framework leads to better educational outcomes for children and young people. The board were updated on other Ofsted research looking at the impact of its work.

The board discussed the importance of gathering the views of parents and providers as part of the evaluation programme. They also highlighted the need to ensure that any lessons learned from the evaluation can be taken forward as part of the next stage of Ofsted reforms.

The board raised provider and inspector welfare and asked how this would feature in the evaluation. They were assured that this was part of the evaluation programme.

7. Strategy update

The board noted the minor amendments for changing the process for reporting on the Big Listen action monitoring report following the Government Internal Audit Agency (GIAA) recommendations and the proposal to regularly update on 10 of the key remaining actions. 

The board asked for an update on one action which falls under ‘asks of the Department for Education’ which is to ‘ask government to improve oversight of unregulated unregistered alternative provision.’ This has been agreed in principle but is subject to SEND reform. The board received an update on DfE engagement on this topic.

8. Update from the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee (ARAC)

ARAC Chair, Martin Spencer, updated the board on activity at the 24 September and 13 November ARAC meetings and noted the changes to committee membership, due to wider Ofsted personnel changes and changes to the GIAA lead auditor for Ofsted.

The board discussed the status of a number of strategic risks and approved the wording of those that had been redrafted. The board also approved the new format of the register and requested that each risk be assigned to one owner.

9. Finance update

The board noted the forecast against the full year budget and discussed the items that could impact on the year end position.

The board received an update on business planning and recent budget challenge sessions. The Chief Financial and Operating Officer noted she will provide further information to the chair following the meeting.

10. Safeguarding group update

The board was updated on the activities of the Safeguarding Group (SGG) from 1 October 2025 to 28 November 2025 and the increased capacity of the team to support this work. This update included reference to 2 reviews which were commissioned during this period, one rapid review and one full safeguarding review.

The board noted the number of complex and sensitive cases that are being reviewed by staff and raised the difficulty and challenge of this work. They thanked the Ofsted staff involved for their work on this.

11. DfE Ofsted framework agreement

The board noted the progress of updating and replacing the current memorandum of understanding between Ofsted and the Department for Education with a standardised framework agreement document. This document was returned to the DfE who have sent this onto the Treasury for final approval.

12. Any other business

The chair noted that this was Sir Hamid Patel’s final Ofsted Board meeting. On behalf of the board, she thanked him for his outstanding contribution to the Ofsted Board and Ofsted’s work.