Ofsted standards for official statistics
Ofsted's official statistics follow the standards defined in the UK Statistics Authority Code of Practice for Statistics.
Applies to England
Documents
Details
Ofsted’s statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). The 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 page contains our policies and statements.
Please visit our Statistics at Ofsted page for our statistical publications.
Updates to this page
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We have replaced our statistical policy documents with 6 new documents to evidence how Ofsted applies the Code of Practice for Statistics. We published ‘Statement of compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics’, ‘Confidentiality and data management policy’, ‘Public involvement and engagement strategy’, ‘Quality management policy’, ‘Release practice policy’ and the ‘Revisions and corrections policy’. We also published our ‘Statistical work programme: April 2026 to March 2027’.
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Updated 5 documents; ‘Pre-release Access to Official Statistics Order 2008: statement of compliance,’ ‘Statement on user engagement,’ ‘Statement on revisions for official statistics,’ ‘Statement on confidentiality and data access’ and the ‘Statement of administrative sources.
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Updated the statement on user engagement for statistics.
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Updated the statement of administrative sources.
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Three statements updated: pre-release access, revisions and confidentiality and data access.
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Updated the methodology note for good and outstanding further education and skills providers: the new version explains how our risk assessment process informs the timings of inspections.
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Updated the methodology note for risk assessment in good and outstanding schools and academies. The major change from previous years is the modelling approach applied to data in stage 1 of the process.
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Statement of administrative sources updated.
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Statement on user engagement for statistics updated. Previously named 'Statistical policy on user engagement'
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Separate methodology notes have replaced the old single document for schools and further education and skills. The notes are updated for new risk assessment methodologies.
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Documents updated to reflect minor changes to responsibilities and policies.
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'Statement of administrative sources' updated.
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Existing user engagement policy documents added.
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Updated with new document: 'Methodology note: the risk assessment of good and outstanding providers'.
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Published 'Statement of administrative sources'.
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Published: Statement of compliance with the Pre-Release Access to Official Statistics Order 2008.
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First published.