Ofsted has reacted to accusations of a lack of accountability among its 3,000 additional inspectors by ending its policy of contracting out school inspection.
The inspectorate’s decision to bring the management of all inspections “in-house” has been welcomed by school leaders, although it has been warned that its own quality assurance processes will need to be “up to spec”.
The current contracts with CfBT, Serco and Tribal have run since September 2009 and will expire in August. They are worth around £30 million a year.
Between them, the three firms employ around 3,000 additional Ofsted inspectors, 1,500 of whom carry out school inspections. Ofsted itself directly employs just 300 to 400 HMIs, of whom around 140 work in schools.
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