Guidance

Ofsted services: forgotten your Government Gateway password

Reset your password on your Government Gateway account so you can access Ofsted services.

Applies to England

If you have forgotten your password for your Government Gateway account, you must follow certain steps in order to reset it to a new one.

What you will need

You must have both of the following:

  • your Government Gateway user ID
  • access to the email address that you used to set up your Government Gateway account

Without these details you cannot reset your Government Gateway password.

How to reset your password

If you do not have multi-factor authentication set up

You will need to follow these steps if your account does not have multi-factor authentication:

  1. When you are asked to sign in to Government Gateway, scroll down and select ‘I have forgotten my password’.
  2. Enter the email address associated with your Government Gateway user ID.
  3. A code will be emailed to you which you will need to enter next.
  4. Enter your Government Gateway user ID.
  5. Create a new password.

If you have multi-factor authentication set up

Multi-factor authentication is an additional security feature you can set up.

If your account already has multi-factor authentication set up, you will need to follow these steps to reset your password:

  1. When you are asked to sign in to Government Gateway, scroll down and select ‘I have forgotten my password’.
  2. Enter the email address associated with your Government Gateway user ID.
  3. A code will be emailed to you which you will need to enter next.
  4. Enter your Government Gateway user ID.
  5. Enter the code sent to the device you set up multi-factor authentication on.
  6. Create a new password.

If you also do not have your ID or access to that email

There is separate guidance on what you can do if you:

Published 7 July 2020