October 2026: Education secretary planning Ofsted reforms
Education secretary Lucy Powell will make changes to Ofsted's school inspection system.
There has been no official announcement, but reporting (including in Schools Week and The Guardian) suggest that changes might be communicated in the "next few months". There are currently no confirmed details about the scale of the change, or which elements of inspection might be overhauled.
There are no immediate changes to the inspection process, and Ofsted has confirmed it will not be pausing graded inspections.
We'll update this page and all our Ofsted resources once we have further information. Select 'save for later' at the top of this page to be notified when we do.
June 2026: Ofsted has updated its inspection guidance documents for 2026/27
Ofsted has published updated versions of its:
These updates