Ofsted urged to "build faith" in inspection complaints process

The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) is urging the watchdog to do more to “build faith” in its complaints system.

It comes as Ofsted extended the consultation period over its proposed changes to complaints procedures.

Among the proposals, Ofsted plans to change inspection procedures to allow schools five working days to review their draft report and submit any comments about issues of factual accuracy and the inspection process.

It has also said it will consider and respond to formal complaints from schools before publishing the final inspection report – if these complaints are submitted “promptly”.

The consultation document (Ofsted, 2020) states: “So that the publication of a report is not overly delayed, if an inspected provider wants to raise a formal complaint, they will need to submit this within two working days of them being issued with their final report. If an inspected provider submits a formal complaint within this period, we will withhold publication of the inspection report until we have considered and responded to the complaint.”