Corporate report

Ofsted Board minutes: 17 September 2025

Updated 18 December 2025

Applies to England

Present

Dame Christine Gilbert (Ofsted Board Chair)

Sir Hamid Patel (senior board member)

Sir Martyn Oliver (HMCI)

Felicity Gillespie (online)

Martin Spencer

David Meyer

Baroness Laura Wyld (online)

Jo Moran

Jon Yates

Executive attendance

Matthew Coffey (Deputy HMCI) (items 4 to 11)

Louise Grainger (Chief Financial Officer) (items 4 to 11)

Lee Owston (National Director, Education) (items 4 to 11)

Yvette Stanley (National Director, Regulation and Social Care) (items 4 to 11)

Jason Bradbury (Director, Insights and Research) (items 4 to 11)

Apologies

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

Rory Gribbell (Director, Strategy and Engagement)

Department for Education Observer

Lorna Howarth (Deputy Director, Teaching Workforce Strategy, Department for Education)

Also in attendance

Principal Private Secretary to HMCI, Head of Private Office  

Owen Davies, Deputy Director, Legal Services (item 4)

Mark Leech, Deputy Director, Communications (item 4)

Head of Strategic Priorities (item 7)

Head of Strategy Delivery (item 8)

Executive support

Board Secretary

Corporate Governance Officer

Status

Approved at the board meeting on 11 December 2025.

1. Welcome, apologies and declarations of interest

The chair welcomed board members to her first board meeting. She thanked board members and staff from the Private Office for their warm welcome. The minutes of the last meeting were agreed as a correct record pending the addition of a reference to Jo Moran’s role on the children’s homes registrations working group.

2. Actions and matters arising

The board discussed actions agreed at previous meetings. Six actions remain open.

The chair and the board thanked Sir Hamid Patel for his leadership as interim chair of the Ofsted Board for the period 1 April to 31 August 2025.

3. Actions taken by the chair

The board noted that Sir Hamid Patel, along with Baroness Laura Wyld, reviewed and commented on the draft response to the education inspection consultation on behalf of the board, as was agreed at the 30 April board meeting.

The board noted correspondence issued by Sir Hamid Patel in his capacity as interim chair since last meeting. The board noted meetings attended by Dame Christine Gilbert since her appointment as Ofsted Board Chair. The board also noted that the chair has agreed to attend a forthcoming meeting of the Improving education together accountability sub-group on 30 September.

4. HMCI update

The board received an update from HMCI, which included:

• progress on inspection improvement
• ongoing sector reception of the recently published consultation response
• recent and ongoing media and stakeholder engagement by HMCI
• proposed changes to ILACS and social care frameworks
• recent work to address the backlog of children’s homes applications

The board noted HMCI’s planned engagement with newly appointed ministers. 

The board discussed DHMCI’s upcoming appearance at the Covid Inquiry and noted that Sir Hamid Patel had also been called in his capacity as CEO of Star Academies.

The board noted recent developments on an ongoing sensitive legal case.

5. Inspection Improvement update

The board noted that final inspection materials were approved by HMCI on 5 September. Arrangements for the September and October pilots would allow for end-to-end testing of renewed education inspection frameworks in all education remits, and measures in place to help quality assure these inspection visits.

The board noted the plans underway to deliver a steady and assured start to inspection under the new frameworks from 10 November 2025. The board noted the governance arrangements in place to ensure readiness to launch, including a regular monitoring report to HMCI. The board queried whether digital systems to support inspection were prepared for the launch of the new frameworks and were assured that they had been tested to ensure they are sufficiently resilient.

The board noted the change to add an additional inspector to school inspections, in response to the independent review of wellbeing by Sinéad McBrearty, Chief Executive of Education Support, the mental health and wellbeing charity, and feedback received from Ofsted’s workforce during the consultation period.

The board discussed the inspector training programme in place, led by the Ofsted Academy, to prepare inspectors in the education remits to deliver inspections under the renewed frameworks. The board discussed the role that training will play in ensuring consistency of inspection experienced by different schools and providers. The board noted the mechanism in place to track inspector completion of training.

The board considered the longer-term approach to measuring and ensuring consistency and validity. It was agreed that a meeting would be arranged to learn more about Ofsted’s approach.

6. Corporate governance framework update

The board noted the changes proposed by the new Ofsted board chair, since the draft corporate governance framework was provisionally agreed by the board at the meeting of 26 February 2025.

The board noted that work is ongoing to update the current memorandum of understanding (MoU) between DfE and Ofsted by producing a framework agreement in line with other arm’s length bodies. The board agreed that this would be further reviewed by the corporate governance framework once agreed by Ofsted and DfE and approved by the board chair.

The board discussed engagement across the different remits, and the chair was supportive of board members visiting Ofsted sites.  

The board noted that HMCI update to the board will include an information summary of all litigation cases and not include detailed cases. This is to make sure that the board can monitor trends in litigation cases and ask related questions. The board further noted as mentioned in the framework agreement, Ofsted provide DfE with a quarterly update on litigation cases.

The board discussed financial management and references to the approval of the budget. It was suggested to update Annex A: Responsibilities of the board and HMCI so that references to the process for board review and approval of the budget was consistent through the document and the board agreed with this proposal. The board approved the draft corporate governance framework pending this addition.

7. Strategy update

The board was asked to provide feedback on the draft Big Listen action monitoring report.

The board discussed how future updates to the board on the progress of actions in the Big Listen action monitoring report might be improved to include greater detail on the progress of actions and mechanisms that are in place to track this progress.

The board approved the fifth Big Listen action monitoring report for publication.

8. Report from Audit and Risk Assurance Committee (ARAC), including strategic risk update

ARAC chair Martin Spencer updated the board on items on the agenda at the next ARAC meeting to be held on 24 September.

The board discussed the status of the strategic risk register as well as the risk tolerance levels and agreed to review tolerance levels to ensure they are appropriately aligned with strategic risks. This will be discussed in depth by ARAC before being brought to the board for agreement.

9. Finance update

The board noted the period 4 forecast against the full year budget, acknowledging this may change to take account of inspection plans from autumn 2025. The board discussed the movements in the forecast since the last meeting and noted the opportunity to allocate additional budget to mitigate strategic risks, bring forward expenditure planned for 2026–27, or that would result in efficiencies.

10. Safeguarding group update

The board was updated on the coroner’s inquest regarding a child who came to harm in an early years setting, including an update on the learning from the safeguarding learning review of this case which had concluded.

The board discussed the changes made following the learning review. These included the commissioning of the new regulatory casework system; changes being incorporated into the new education inspection framework and plans to increase the frequency of inspection.

HMCI reminded the board that we do not have powers to do investigations on cases as Ofsted is not an investigative authority. National Director, Regulation and Social Care, reported that we have strengthened the training, and are thoroughly examining any systemic or ongoing issues from each case.

The board discussed the range of system investments that Ofsted currently has in train. The board noted the need for a solution that enables information to be processed electronically, with built-in functionality to identify patterns and the need to provide automatic alerts to staff, managers and senior colleagues.

11. Ofsted’s use of AI update

The board was updated on Ofsted’s progress and plans to harness AI opportunities lawfully, ethically, and responsibly in support of Ofsted’s strategic priorities. The board noted Ofsted’s work to consider AI use in areas such as inspection report drafting, parent and learner survey analysis, and in supporting tasks like proofreading. The board noted the governance now in place to review AI use cases through a new AI committee; ensuring that new use cases are discussed in advance of implementation and that information is appropriately managed. The board also noted Ofsted’s work with other government bodies and sectors to learn about their AI use.

12. HMCI’s annual report update

The board received an update on the drafting of Ofsted’s annual report. This included the report’s proposed themes: inclusion, disadvantage and vulnerability, a focus on older children facing specific challenges, and navigating the opportunities and challenges of AI. The board noted the reduced length of the annual report this year for reasons of cost.

The board discussed HMCI’s foreword commentary in the annual report. The chair welcomed the interesting thematic emphasis but recommended that more work was needed to ensure depth, rigour and key messages.

13. Review of actions agreed at this meeting

The board agreed the summary of actions.

14. Any other business

There was no other business.