Transparency data

Ofsted: gender pay gap report and data 2024

Updated 21 February 2025

Applies to England

Foreword

Ofsted aims to improve lives by raising standards in education and children’s social care. Our work contributes to building a highly educated, productive and safe society in which children and young people can succeed, whatever their background.

As an organisation that holds others to account, it is important that we too are accountable and are open to challenge and scrutiny. Reporting on the gender pay gap shows how well we achieve gender equality in our pay structure.

This report provides information on the gender pay gap for the year 2023–24, with data to 31 March 2024 and comparable information for the previous 3 years.

We are confident that our policies and initiatives promote equal opportunities for all our workforce and ensure that both sexes can progress in their careers.

I look forward to reporting again next year.

I confirm that the data reported here is accurate and has been calculated according to the requirements of the Equality Act 2010.

Sir Martyn Oliver

His Majesty’s Chief Inspector

Introduction

The gender pay gap is the difference in the average earnings between all men and women in an organisation. It is different to equal pay, which is about the difference in actual earnings of men and women doing equal work (or work of equal value).

Since April 2017, employers with 250 or more employees have been required to publish information on their gender pay gap. The pay gap must be reported on in six different ways:

• the mean gender pay gap
• the median gender pay gap
• the mean bonus gender pay gap
• the median bonus gender pay gap
• the proportion of men and women who received bonuses
• the proportion of men and women according to quartile pay bands

The mean gender pay gap is the difference between the mean hourly rate of pay of male full-pay relevant employees and that of female full-pay relevant employees.^{[footnote 1]}

The median gender pay gap is the difference between the median hourly rate of pay of male full-pay relevant employees and that of female full-pay relevant employees.

Ofsted’s gender profile

The percentage of female staff in Ofsted has decreased slightly to 68% (from 69% in 2022–23). However, this continues to be higher than the Civil Service average of 54.5%, and the UK average of 51%.

Our spot rate pay model, where a single salary is set for each grade, supports equal pay for equal work. By not having pay ranges, we avoid the pay inequality that can arise from the ability to negotiate salaries or from linking pay to length of service (see Annex A for our grading structure).

Ofsted’s gender pay gap

	2024	2023	2022	2021
Mean gender pay gap	5.8% in favour of men	5% in favour of men	3.6% in favour of men	3.6% in favour of men
Median gender pay gap	0% favouring neither men nor women	0% favouring neither men nor women	1.1% in favour of women	8.0% in favour of women
Proportion receiving bonus	Men: 46.5% Women: 39.7%	Men: 74% Women: 74%	Men: 97% Women: 98%	Men: 93% Women: 91%
Mean bonus gender pay gap	53.9% in favour of men (an average of £136)	7.5% in favour of men (an average of £16.30)	7.5% in favour of men (an average of £47)	2.1% in favour of men (an average of £13.50)
Median bonus gender pay gap	0% favouring neither men nor women	0% favouring neither men nor women	9.3% in favour of men (an average of £50)	0% favouring neither men nor women

Chart A: proportions of men and women in each pay quartile 2021–24, as at 31 March 2024

_{View data in an accessible table format.}

Analysis of gender pay gap data

Ofsted’s mean and median gender pay gap are broadly the same as last year and are below the mean and median averages within the whole Civil Service.  

The median pay gap is 0%. This is because in 2024 the middle points for our female and male staff both fall at the same grade (B1 inspector). As Ofsted operates a spot-rate salary model for grades other than Senior Civil Service (SCS), individuals at the same grade are paid the same salary.

The mean pay gap is 5.8%, favouring men. The average pay difference between all men and all women is less than £2 per hour. We believe this 5.8% gap is due to higher proportions of male colleagues in more senior grades, particularly SCS grades (where 58% are male). As SCS are paid the highest salaries and operate within pay bands rather than spot rates, changes to the SCS gender distribution have an impact on the gender pay gap.

Our mean pay gap for bonuses has increased significantly, to 53.9%, and there is a difference of 7 percentage points in favour of men in the proportions of men and women receiving an award. The mean indicates that, on average, awards to men are £136.20 greater than awards to women. Several factors influence this increase:

• In previous years, Ofsted has sometimes offered a flat-rate end-of-year award to all eligible colleagues. This meant that the proportions of men and women receiving an award were consistent. In 2023–24, the awards were given via individual nominations from our in-year reward schemes, rather than a flat-rate approach.
• Due to affordability pressures, the budget allocated for in-year reward schemes was reduced in 2023–24. This led to a lower volume of awards, particularly for non-SCS staff.
• The lower volume of awards means that single awards have a greater impact on the overall average. SCS bonuses were higher than non-SCS awards, and a higher number of these awards were received by men. At the same time, fewer men received a non-SCS award. This meant that the higher SCS awards drove up the average bonus for men, while having the reverse effect on the average for women.

However, our median bonus gap remains at 0%. This is because most awards are made to non-SCS grades under our Instant Recognition Scheme, which had fixed values of either £50 or £100.

Actions to address the gender pay gap

We are committed to taking the following actions in 2024–26:

• continuing to engage with staff networks when we carry out a full in-year reward review and relaunch to ensure that we are promoting equal opportunities for our entire workforce
• monitoring and analysing the use of our in-year and end-year reward schemes, reporting on this to our Executive Committee and the SCS Performance and Remuneration Committee and carrying out recommendations to reduce the variance between awards and amounts across business areas and grades
• ensuring that our recruitment materials appeal to a diverse audience by having diverse visual representation and inclusive language across all recruitment content
• designing and developing our new approach to equality, diversity and inclusion, under which we will bring all our activities together into one plan

Annex A: Ofsted’s grading structures

Administrative, professional and technical (APT) grading structure

Senior Civil Service (SCS) grade equivalent	Grade
SCS	SCS

Civil Service grade equivalent	Grade
Grade 6	Principal Officer
Grade 7	Band A
Senior Executive Officer (SEO)	B1
Higher Executive Officer (HEO)	B2
Executive Officer (EO)	B3
Administrative Officer (AO)	C1

Inspector grading structure

Civil Service grade equivalent	Grade
Grade 6	Senior His Majesty’s Inspector (HMI)
Grade 6	Specialist Adviser
Grade 7	HMI
Grade 7	Regulatory Inspection Manager
SEO	B1
HEO	B2

Annex B: data table for chart A

Proportions of men and women in each pay quartile 2021–24, as at 31 March 2024

	Lower pay quartile – % male	Lower pay quartile – % female
2021	38	62
2022	37	63
2023	33	67
2024	33	67

	Lower middle pay quartile – % male	Lower middle pay quartile – % female
2021	32	68
2022	30	70
2023	23	77
2024	31	69

	Upper middle pay quartile – % male	Upper middle pay quartile – % female
2021	21	79
2022	21	79
2023	30	70
2024	21	79

	Upper pay quartile – % male	Upper pay quartile – % female
2021	42	58
2022	43	57
2023	42	58
2024	42	58

_{See Chart A.}

1. ‘Full-pay relevant employee’ means a relevant employee who is not, during the relevant pay period, being paid at a reduced rate or nil as a result of the employee being on leave, according to the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017. Throughout this report, references to employees or gender profile includes full-pay relevant employees only. The ‘relevant pay period’, in relation to the relevant employee, means (a) the period in respect of which the relevant employer pays the employee basic pay, whether weekly, fortnightly or monthly, or any other period, or (b) if the relevant employer does not pay the employee basic pay, the period in respect of which the employer most frequently pays the employee one of the elements of ordinary pay mentioned in regulation 3(1) (b) to (e) in the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017. ↩