Public and parents'/carers' views about Ofsted

About the study 

Ofsted (the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills) inspects services that provide education and skills for learners of all ages in England. It also inspects and regulates services that care for children and learners. 

In March 2024, Ofsted launched the Big Listen, a consultation that asked for people’s views on how to improve Ofsted’s approach to inspection and regulation. The aim was to give stakeholders, including parents, carers, and the public, an opportunity to give their feedback on Ofsted’s work.  

This report sets out the findings from research with the public and parents/carers, carried out by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen). Alongside this report, Ofsted also published evidence from other activities that formed part of the Big Listen, including Ofsted’s Big Listen public consultation; findings from a consultation and focus groups with children and young people; and findings from research with providers and professionals, commissioned through IFF Research, to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the current approach to inspection and regulation.  
 

Findings 

Findings give a mixed picture of parents’ and the public’s views on Ofsted. Across both surveys, only around half agreed that Ofsted acts in the best interests of children and that Ofsted is a valuable source of information about education and care. 

Views on trust were also mixed:

• Less than half the public (44%) had trust in Ofsted, although more agreed that Ofsted could be trusted than disagreed (44% versus 16%). 
• 49% of parents and carers in our survey agreed that Ofsted could be trusted, while 26% disagreed.

Findings indicate a desire for reform to inspection practice. In both surveys, the public and parents expressed a preference for no notice to be given before an inspection (chosen by around a third of respondents – the most frequently selected option), with parents in focus groups indicating concern about the impact of preparation time on the accuracy of inspections. Inspections were also deemed too infrequent, with parents favouring yearly inspections. 

Most parent survey respondents said they did place some value on Ofsted reports. However, single-word judgements to sum up providers were seen to be reductive and they often did not reflect parents’ and children’s real-life experiences of providers. In both the parents’ survey and focus groups, there was a preference was for single-word judgements to be replaced with an overview or summary that would provide more detail. 

• The use of single-word judgements had more opposition (45%) than support (34%) among the general public.
• Half (49%) of parents/carers in our survey opposed the use of single-word judgements, although 46% agreed that they were useful in helping parents and carers make decisions about their children’s education.
• When presented with alternatives to single-word judgements, the most popular was replacing single-word judgements with separate judgements for each inspection area (supported by 76% of respondents compared to just 38% who supported single-word judgements).

In focus groups, parents spoke of the impact of inspections and reporting practices on staff wellbeing.  Though this is explored elsewhere in much greater detail, it is notable that the impacts on staff have permeated to parents through their interactions with providers, and their interactions with their children, who can also be affected by their teachers’ feelings of worry. 

Methodology

Parent/carer research

The parent/carer survey included questions on core topics which all respondents answered, as well as specific questions asked of parents and carers who had experience of a particular remit that Ofsted inspects or regulates. The core content included questions about culture (including trust and perceptions of Ofsted), inspection (including notice periods and inspection frequency), reporting (including single-word judgements and alternative approaches) and impact (including how Ofsted outputs inform decision making). 

Survey respondents were recruited via providers attended by their child/children. The achieved sample was 4,349 responses. Due to the convenience sampling approach, the results cannot be generalised to the total population of parents and carers in England. 

We conducted seven focus groups with a total of 42 parents and carers: early years (x2 groups); schools (x2); further education and skills; SEND in mainstream schools or colleges, and SEND in specialist schools or colleges. Participants were selected from survey respondents who gave consent to be recontacted.