Standard

Statement of compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics

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) that all producers of official statistics should follow.

You are welcome to contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards. Please contact the appropriate team of statisticians using the email address we include with each release. Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via the OSR website.

The UK Statistics Authority provides a summary of the types of official statistics. For other types of statistical releases, such as management information or transparency data, we aim to follow these principles where possible. This statement sets out how we apply the 3 core principles of the code and the standards that support them.

Trustworthiness

Show integrity

All producers of official statistics in Ofsted act professionally and handle data with honesty and integrity, free from political bias, to serve the public good. We ensure that our messages are communicated clearly and that official statistics remain confidential before they are released.

Please see our public involvement and engagement strategy for information about how we seek to understand the needs of our users.

For further information on objectivity and transparency, please refer to our revisions and corrections policy and our release practice policy.

Lead responsibly

Ofsted has a head of profession for statistics, who is responsible for ensuring that our official statistics are impartial. The head of profession advises on the content of the statistics, and how and when they will be published. They also advise on major revisions to statistics, such as a change in designation or content. 

We promote the requirements of the code across the organisation through an e-learning package that contains specific examples, relevant to Ofsted, of how to apply the code in practice. The audience for this training is not limited to teams that produce statistics. We also offer training to policy colleagues, senior managers and colleagues involved in the quality assurance and publication of releases, to ensure that all relevant staff are aware of the code, its principles, and intelligent transparency. When required, we will report concerns under the code to the Director General for Regulation.

We maintain a record of our statisticians who are members of the Government Statistician Group (GSG), and we participate in quarterly badging panels to ensure that non-badged statisticians have the opportunity to become a badged member of the statistical profession by undertaking an online test, a GSG technical assessment and an interview against the GSG competency framework. We also regularly recruit badged statisticians through mainstream recruitment campaigns.

Be transparent

We publish statistics on GOV.UK. We announce the release window of official statistics releases on GOV.UK’s research and statistics calendar. We provide specific publication dates for official statistics at least 4 weeks before release. We limit access before public release to those involved in production of the statistics and the preparation of the output. See our release practice policy for more information.

We will correct errors in line with our policy on revisions and corrections.

Manage data responsibly

We handle data safely and securely, only granting access to sensitive data to those who require it by using appropriate controlled access permissions. All producers of statistics complete mandatory disclosure training. Please see our confidentiality and data management policy for further details.

Quality

Prioritise quality

Producers of statistics in Ofsted operate in a supportive environment where quality concerns and improvements in ways of working are discussed at all levels. All data is quality assured before we use it in statistics. See our quality management policy and confidentiality and data management policy for more information.

Be rigorous

Our quality management policy sets out the frameworks we work within to ensure our publications are high quality. Where we collect data for statistics releases, we ensure it is of sufficient quality. See our confidentiality and data management policy for more information.

Be open about quality

Where possible, we keep data series and methods the same to allow for comparisons over time. However, sometimes we need to make wider changes to our statistics that limit the scope for comparison. For example, we had to make changes when we started inspecting providers under the renewed education inspection framework on 10 November 2025. Please see our public involvement and engagement strategy for more information.

Value

Be relevant

We publish the contact details of the teams that produce official statistics alongside every release. We encourage feedback to ensure our releases continue to meet the needs of our users. We regularly review the way we disseminate our statistics, and we are exploring options to release data on inspection outcomes in a timelier manner. Please see our public involvement and engagement strategy for more information.

We time the publication of official statistics to engage with as wide a range of users as possible. For example, we avoid publishing statistics that report on state-funded schools outcomes during school holidays.

Be clear

We publish official statistics that are designed to be clear and interpreted by a range of users. We provide a main findings commentary with each release that summarises the key messages for users who wish to have a quick summary, and a more in-depth narrative that includes charts and other visualisation to convey messages clearly. We also publish underlying data for users who wish to explore the data behind a release in more detail.

We regularly review the dissemination methods of our statistical outputs and have begun to explore options to release data in alternative formats, for example by extending the functionality of Ofsted: explore an area.

Be accessible

We publish all statistical releases on our statistics at Ofsted page on GOV.UK in formats that comply with The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

All publications are released in accessible HTML and open document formats to ensure they can be accessed by all users, including users who require assistive software. Sometimes we publish 2 versions of the same release. For example, we may publish a spreadsheet that includes interactive elements such as filters and interactive visualisations, and a separate accessible version that conveys the information in a different way. We differentiate the releases by the title of the document and by clearly marking the version that is accessible on the GOV.UK release page.

We have based the format of our releases on the accessibility guidance published by the Government Analysis Function and the content design guidance for GOV.UK from the Government Digital Service. If you find one of our releases does not meet your accessibility needs, please contact the producer team using the email address included in the release and we will provide you with a version in an accessible format that meets your needs.

To ensure our releases remain publicly available, we do not delete past versions from our statistics pages. We have designed the pages to ensure the most recent releases are displayed prominently at the top of our pages and place older releases in an annex at the bottom of each page.

We currently do not charge a fee for any of our statistical services.