Guidance

Ofsted publications during pre-election silence policy

Published 26 March 2024

Applies to England

Introduction

When local or general elections take place, there is usually a period of pre-election silence. During this period, there are some restrictions on what Ofsted can publish, including some reports.

During local authority (LA) elections, the pre-election silence only applies to local areas where elections are taking place. If an election is not taking place, reports can be published as usual.

Publications

For general and LA elections, Ofsted will pause the publication of reports that make LA-wide judgements. We will not publish:

• inspections of LA services under the inspection of local authority children’s services (ILACS) framework, including monitoring and focused visits 
• inspections of local area services for children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) 
• joint targeted area inspections (JTAI) – these are inspections with Ofsted, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) and HM Inspectorate of Probation
• management information, transparency data and other data sets with a local area breakdown

For general elections only, we will also not publish research and thematic reports which comment on government policy.

We will continue to publish:  

• state-funded schools and early years (EY) provision 
• reports of all Ofsted inspected/regulated social care providers 
• multi-academy trust summary evaluations 
• childminder agency inspection reports 
• childcare register compliance inspection outcome letters 
• outcome summaries following regulatory action of childcare provision 
• independent schools, including aligned inspection reports 
• reports under the online education accreditation scheme (OEAS) 
• teacher training providers (including initial teacher education (ITE) and early career framework (ECF) and national professional qualification (NPQ)) 
• full and short inspections and monitoring visits of further education and skills (FES) providers 

However, we reserve the right to withhold publication of any individual report on a discretionary basis. This may be necessary where a particular inspection has been the focus of significant local political campaigning.

Length of pre-election silence

For LA elections, Ofsted’s pre-election silence period will be set at 4 weeks before an election.

For general elections, we will follow Cabinet Office guidelines.

After any election, Ofsted will operate a short delay in publication so reports are published after the following weekend. This is to allow for recounts, where administrations take time to form and to avoid the short window where LAs are dealing with election administration.