by Shannon Pite
Ofsted has today confirmed the rollout new reforms to education inspections, which it says will offer families “more detail about their children’s education”.
The reforms follow the conclusion of a consultation with both families and education professionals which ran over 12 weeks earlier this year, and received over 6,500 responses.
The reforms – which come into effect from 10 November 2025 – include:
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a new, more “accessible” report card designed in response to ongoing feedback from parents and settings to “highlight excellence and identify areas for improvement”
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a new five-point grading scale (with the final grades renamed as ‘urgent improvement’ ‘needs attention’, ‘expected standard’, ‘Strong standard’ and ‘exceptional’ in response to consultation feedback
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more frequent inspections for early years providers, increasing from every six years to every four years
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new inspection toolkits for grading settings, featuring slimmed-down standards and greater clarity on inspection evidence.
Ofsted states that the reforms are designed to not only raise standards for children and learners, but to address concerns about workload and wellbeing among education professionals while aiding clarity and accessibility for families.
Ofsted chief inspector Sir Martyn Oliver said: “Ofsted exists to keep children safe and improve their lives.
“Children deserve the best possible education, their parents deserve the best possible information, and education professionals deserve to have their work fairly assessed by experts. The changes we are presenting today aim to achieve all three of these things.
“Our new report cards will give parents a clearer understanding of the strengths and areas of improvements at the places their children learn. We will work with the professionals in schools, early years and further education to help them showcase the best of what they do – and help them identify where they can improve.”
Neil Leitch, CEO of the Early Years Alliance, said: “Given that our own research found that Ofsted inspections are the single biggest source of stress among early years providers and that the vast majority of settings are in favour of the removal of single-word judgements, we welcome the move towards a more nuanced approach to early years inspection.
“While questions still remain over how some elements of the new framework will work in practice, it’s clear that Ofsted has listened to the views of both parents and carers, and those working in the education sector, and this collaborative approach is undoubtedly welcome.
“Of course, it remains to be seen how the changes announced today translate into day-to-day practice, and it is absolutely vital that going forward, educators are able to feel confident that their inspection will be fair, balanced and supportive, whatever inspector they get on the day.
“Nevertheless, this is clearly a step in the right direction, and we look forward to working with Ofsted to support the successful implementation of this new approach to inspection.”