Standard

Quality management policy

Updated 30 April 2026

Applies to England

Introduction

Ofsted’s statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR).

OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics (the code). The code requires producers of statistics to publish a series of organisational policies and statements relating to official statistics production. This statement provides an overview of our approach to quality management.

Standard 5 (prioritise quality) of the code encourages people working in organisations producing official statistics to be open about their commitment to quality. 

When producing statistics, we work within the following frameworks:

• The Code of Practice for Statistics (the Code) – we have published our statement of code compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics
• The AQuA book – this provides government guidance on how to produce robust analysis that is fit for purpose
• The Government Functional Standard GovS 010: Analysis – Ofsted carries out an annual review against this standard
• The Reproducible Analytical Pipelines (RAP) strategy – we continue to implement RAP when producing our statistical outputs to ensure we make reproducible, reusable, high-quality and efficient analysis

Quality culture

Producers of statistics in Ofsted operate in a supportive environment where quality concerns and improvements in ways of working are discussed at all levels. Producers from different teams meet regularly to discuss quality – including the recording and sharing of best practice and reviewing near-misses and data incidents. We encourage open discussion to make sure the processes in each team are consistent and robust. Where we have concerns about data quality, we will highlight this in our methodology that we publish alongside our official statistics releases. We will also review the designation of a statistics release if we have concerns about data quality, or amend the release if the data is too unreliable.

Analytical quality

All analysts are granted access to an internal quality manual and undertake a quality induction as part of their training. This teaches them where to find guidance and desk instructions essential for producing high-quality statistics.

In addition to routine peer reviews of statistical publications, we also carry out targeted ad-hoc reviews of publications; for example, a recent review focused on accessibility of statistics publications. 

Data quality

We quality assure all data before using it to produce statistics. Where data is collected or provided by a third party, we work with the supplier to improve the quality of the data before we enter it into our systems. See our confidentiality and data management policy for further information.

Revisions and corrections

We will make planned revisions to statistical data as part of our normal release practice. If we discover errors in our official statistics, we will correct them as soon as practicable based on the severity of the error. See our revisions and corrections policy for further information.

Engaging with users

To ensure that our statistical releases continue to offer good value to users, we encourage feedback. More information can be found in our public involvement and engagement strategy.