Ofsted Inspection Framework
Ofsted inspections are often nerve-wracking for schools, and with rules, terminology, and reporting arrangements changing, they can feel complicated for teachers and parents alike. However, knowing what inspectors actually look for can make the process much easier to understand. In this latest guide, we explain the current Ofsted inspection framework, how an Ofsted inspection works, what has changed under the renewed framework, how report cards are graded, how SEND and inclusion are considered, and how long after an Ofsted inspection the report is published.
The information below reflects the framework introduced for inspections from November 2025, together with the inspection guidance and toolkit updates applying from September 2026.
What is an Ofsted inspection and how it works
Ofsted, the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills, is the non-ministerial body that inspects and regulates education and children's services in England. An Ofsted inspection is an independent evaluation of the quality and safety of a school or setting against the statutory education inspection framework, with findings reported publicly so parents can make informed choices about education.
For schools, the framework sets out the principles inspectors follow and the standards they use when evaluating provision. It applies across a range of education settings, including maintained schools, academies, non-association independent schools, registered early years settings and further education and skills provision.
The current framework came into use for inspections on 10 November 2025, and it changed the way schools are evaluated and reported, moving away from the previous single overall effectiveness grade towards a report card covering separate evaluation areas. That means a school can now receive separate judgements about areas such as inclusion, curriculum and teaching, achievement, attendance and behaviour, personal development and wellbeing, and leadership and governance. Depending on the school, early years and post-16 provision may also be evaluated.
The Ofsted inspection framework
The Education Inspection Framework, or EIF, is the statutory framework that sets out Ofsted's inspection principles and the main evaluations inspectors make. It should be read alongside the relevant inspection toolkit and operating guide.
For schools, the current framework evaluates the following areas:
- Safeguarding
- Inclusion
- Curriculum and teaching
- Achievement
- Attendance and behaviour
- Personal development and wellbeing
- Early years, where applicable
- Post-16 provision, where applicable
- Leadership and governance
Safeguarding is the only area treated differently, as it is judged as met or not met, rather than receiving one of the five evaluation grades the others are evaluated on. The framework applies to different types of provision, with the evaluation areas adapted to each remit, meaning the framework for a primary school is not identical in every detail to that of an FE provider or early years setting.
For parents, this means an Ofsted report now provides more detail about different aspects of a school's work than the previous single headline grade could.
The new 2025 framework: report cards, evaluation areas and the inspection toolkit
The renewed framework represented a substantial change in the way Ofsted communicates inspection findings. The previous approach to state-funded schools used an overall effectiveness grade, but Ofsted stopped giving a single overall grade for state-funded schools in September 2024, before the renewed education inspection framework came into use in November 2025.
What changed in the new Ofsted framework
The biggest change is the move from a single overall judgement to a more detailed report card. Under the current system, each relevant evaluation area is considered separately, allowing a school's strengths and areas requiring attention to be identified with greater precision.
The five grades used for evaluation areas are:
- Exceptional
- Strong standard
- Expected standard
- Needs attention
- Urgent improvement
The "expected standard" means the school has met the standards set out for that evaluation area, including relevant legal requirements, statutory guidance and professional standards. Inspectors can then consider whether the provision meets the criteria for a stronger judgement. A school receiving "needs attention" has not met the expected standard because aspects of provision may be inconsistent, limited in scope or impact, or may not fully meet legal requirements. "Urgent improvement" represents the lowest level on the evaluation scale and indicates that urgent action is required to provide a suitable standard of education or care.
As mentioned, safeguarding only has a “met” or “not met” evaluation, as it is a statutory responsibility, and inspectors consider whether the school's safeguarding arrangements meet the relevant expectations rather than treating safeguarding as another area to be ranked on the same five-point scale.
There is also an important distinction between the new Ofsted inspection framework and the materials inspectors use alongside it. The framework itself was introduced in November 2025, but Ofsted has subsequently updated its inspection toolkits and operating guides, including updates that apply from September 2026.
There is no separate 2026 EIF replacing the November 2025 framework; Ofsted is simply continuing to update the supporting materials used to apply it. The September 2026 toolkit updates include clarification on matters such as attainment and progress, mobile phone policies, and leaders' engagement with pupils with SEND and their families within the inclusion evaluation area.
Ofsted report cards and evaluation areas
An Ofsted report card is the published summary of a school's inspection findings, and rather than giving parents one overall effectiveness grade, it provides judgements across the relevant evaluation areas alongside the safeguarding judgement. The Ofsted inspection toolkit shows how inspectors reach those judgements and includes the standards they use to evaluate provision.
The toolkit makes the evaluation standards more transparent, so school leaders do not have to guess what inspectors mean by terms such as "expected standard" or "strong standard". They can examine the published standards themselves.
For schools, the evaluation areas can be understood broadly as follows.
· Inclusion: This considers whether pupils can access and benefit from education, including the experiences of pupils with SEND and other groups who may face barriers to learning or participation.
· Curriculum and teaching: This considers the quality and effectiveness of what pupils learn and how they are taught.
· Achievement: The achievement section looks at what pupils know and can do, including their progress and attainment in the context of the school's provision.
· Attendance and behaviour: This section considers attendance, behaviour, attitudes and the school's approach to creating an environment in which pupils can learn.
· Personal development and wellbeing: Personal development and wellbeing considers the wider development and wellbeing of pupils beyond academic achievement.
· Leadership and governance: This final section considers how effectively leaders and those responsible for governance provide direction, maintain standards and improve the quality of education.
A "needs attention" or "urgent improvement" judgement can also have implications for future monitoring, and Ofsted has introduced monitoring arrangements under the renewed framework through which individual evaluation areas can be re-evaluated.
The Ofsted inspection process
Although inspections can vary according to the school and circumstances, there is a clear structure covering notification, preparation, evidence gathering, feedback and reporting.
How much notice do Ofsted give, and how long does an inspection last?
For a routine full inspection, Ofsted normally contacts the school by telephone on the morning before the inspection begins. Under the current arrangements, the lead inspector usually contacts the school between 9.30am and 10am on a Monday, with some exceptions following bank holidays or longer school holidays. Full inspections normally last two days, although smaller schools or particular circumstances can affect the arrangements.
Inspections without notice can happen in particular circumstances. In such cases, the lead inspector normally telephones the school around 15 minutes before arriving. After notification, the school receives confirmation by email, including information about questionnaires and what needs to be available at the start of the inspection.
The preparation is intended to give inspectors an understanding of the school's context and allow them to focus their evidence gathering. Schools may need to provide information about areas such as self-evaluation, safeguarding and the circumstances of pupils. The current approach is designed to avoid creating unnecessary additional paperwork, and leaders should be able to explain their school's strengths, challenges and priorities without constructing a large collection of documents specifically for inspectors.
What happens during an Ofsted inspection?
A typical full inspection starts with the lead inspector gathering evidence across the relevant evaluation areas. This can involve meetings with leaders, visits to lessons, conversations with teachers and other staff, discussions with pupils, examination of relevant records and consideration of the experiences of different groups of pupils. Inspectors may also speak to parents and consider information from questionnaires.
The process is evidence-led, with inspectors interested in what happens routinely in the school and the impact of its work rather than a performance created specifically for inspection day. For leaders and SENCOs, that makes consistency particularly important, and they should be able to clearly explain what its provision looks like day to day, how it identifies pupils' needs, what support is provided and how leaders know whether that support is making a difference.
Schools may choose to carry out a mock Ofsted inspection as part of their preparation, which can allow them to rehearse conversations, identify gaps in evidence, and check whether staff understand the school's priorities. It should be used as a diagnostic exercise rather than as an attempt to predict exactly what inspectors will do.
For SENCOs, a useful starting point is to review the school's current SEND provision against the inclusion evaluation area. Can staff explain how needs are identified? Can leaders demonstrate how support is adapted? Is there evidence that interventions and reasonable adjustments are having an impact?
The aim is not to produce paperwork for its own sake, but to ensure the school's existing practice is clear, coherent, and understood by the people responsible for delivering it.
Types of Ofsted inspections
There are several types of Ofsted inspection, although some of the terminology used by schools and parents comes from the previous inspection system. For state-funded schools, a full inspection is carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005 and was previously commonly described as graded inspections or "section 5 inspections". Under the current framework, they result in the new-style report card rather than the previous overall effectiveness grade.
Monitoring inspections are different, and can be used where Ofsted needs to assess progress following an earlier inspection or where particular evaluation areas require further attention. The term section 8 inspection also remains familiar because section 8 of the Education Act 2005 provides the legal basis for certain inspections and visits.
Before the renewed framework, schools could have an "ungraded" Section 8 inspection where Ofsted checked whether the school's previous overall effectiveness judgement should remain unchanged. That terminology can still appear in older reports and discussions, but the current system has changed the context. The old distinction between graded and ungraded inspections should not be used as though it describes the current report-card system exactly.
Common reasons a school may be inspected include its normal inspection cycle, the outcome of a previous inspection, monitoring arrangements, safeguarding concerns, complaints or significant changes affecting the school. The precise circumstances depend on Ofsted's statutory powers and current inspection arrangements.
Schools can request a deferral in certain circumstances, but a request does not automatically mean Ofsted will postpone an inspection. Ofsted usually considers deferral requests under its published arrangements and the school's circumstances. Parents do not have a general right to request an inspection simply because they have concerns about a school, and those parents should normally use the school's complaints process or the appropriate external route, depending on the nature of the concern.
How often are schools inspected?
State-funded schools are inspected approximately once every four years, except where they are part of a monitoring programme. There is also a statutory requirement that schools are inspected within five school years from the end of the school year in which their previous inspection took place. New schools are treated differently, and Ofsted says that it will usually carry out a routine inspection of a new school in its third year of operation, although monitoring can occur earlier.
The arrangements for early years settings differ, and early years provision is inspected under its own inspection toolkit and operating guidance, so parents and providers should check the relevant early years inspection information rather than assuming that the school timetable applies.
Ofsted inspection reports
The introduction of report cards changes what parents should look for when reading an inspection outcome.
How to find & read an Ofsted inspection report
Ofsted publishes inspection reports and report cards on its online reports service, and parents can search for a school by name and review its published inspection information. Under the current system, start by looking at the individual evaluation areas rather than searching for a single overall grade.
A report card can tell you how the school was evaluated in areas including inclusion, curriculum and teaching, achievement, attendance and behaviour, personal development and wellbeing, and leadership and governance. For a family considering a school, the individual grades provide useful information, but they should be read alongside the written explanation, which is particularly important for children with SEND.
A school may have a strong or expected-standard judgement in several areas while still having specific aspects of SEND provision that a parent wants to investigate further. Equally, a single evaluation area should not automatically be treated as a complete description of a child's likely experience. An Ofsted inspection report is one source of information about a school, so parents may also want to consider the school's SEND information report, policies, curriculum, communication with families, accessibility, pastoral provision and the practical experiences of children currently attending.
Schools also have an opportunity to raise concerns about the inspection process. Where concerns cannot be resolved during the inspection, schools can use Ofsted's complaints process. The current arrangements allow schools to comment on factual accuracy and clarity in the draft report card and, where appropriate, submit a formal complaint seeking a review of the inspection process.
How long after an inspection is the Ofsted report published?
For a state-funded school, Ofsted says the draft report card will normally be sent to the school within 18 working days of the end of the inspection. The school then has five working days to comment on minor points relating to clarity or factual accuracy, or to submit a formal complaint.
The final report card is normally sent to the school within 30 working days of the end of the inspection where the school has only raised minor points about clarity or factual accuracy. Ofsted normally publishes the final report card on its reports website five working days after sending it to the school.
There can also be delays where a formal complaint is submitted. Ofsted does not normally publish draft or final report cards during school holidays, which can affect the calendar time between an inspection and publication.
How Ofsted inspects SEND and Inclusion
SEND is particularly important under the current framework because inclusion is one of the core evaluation areas for schools. There is no separate "SEND grade" on an ordinary school report card, and instead, inclusion is evaluated as part of the inspection, with SEND provision forming an important part of the evidence inspectors consider.
When reviewing schools, inspectors may consider how well they are able to identify and understand pupils' needs, whether teaching is appropriately adapted, whether pupils receive effective support and whether resources are used well. They may also consider how leaders work with pupils and their families and whether the school understands the barriers individual pupils face.
The September 2026 toolkit update specifically includes clarification concerning leaders' engagement with pupils with SEND and their families within the inclusion evaluation area. A useful starting point is the graduated approach. Schools should be able to explain how they identify a need, plan support, put that support into practice, review its effectiveness and adapt provision where necessary.
Inspectors can also consider the quality of teaching alongside additional interventions and support. Effective SEND provision is not simply about how many interventions a school runs, but whether pupils receive high-quality teaching and appropriate adaptations throughout the school day. For a pupil with dyslexia, for example, evidence might include appropriate classroom adaptations, accessible resources, suitable approaches to literacy, assistive technology where appropriate and a clear understanding among staff of how the pupil's needs affect learning.
A SENCO should also be able to explain how the school works with families and, where appropriate, external professionals.
How Ofsted inspects safeguarding
Safeguarding is a core part of every school's responsibilities and is treated separately from the other evaluation areas. Inspectors consider whether safeguarding arrangements are effective and meet the relevant requirements. This can include conversations with the DSL, examination of safeguarding records and discussions about how staff recognise and respond to concerns. Safeguarding is also woven through the wider inspection, and considers what pupils and staff say about safety and whether safeguarding is understood as part of the school's everyday culture.
Schools should work from the requirements already set out in statutory guidance, including KCSIE. Ofsted's role is to inspect against the relevant framework and statutory requirements, rather than asking schools to invent additional safeguarding systems specifically for inspection.
A "not met" safeguarding judgement is therefore significant and should not be considered another grade sitting alongside "needs attention" or "urgent improvement". It is a separate judgement about whether safeguarding arrangements meet the required standard.
What an Ofsted inspection means for schools, SENCOs and parents
The introduction of report cards gives each audience a slightly different reason to understand the new Ofsted inspection framework. For SENCOs and school leaders, self-evaluation should be kept current and reflect the school’s actual position across the evaluation areas rather than being produced specifically because an inspection has been announced.
They should also be clear about the impact of SEND provision, detailing what support is provided, why it is provided and how the school knows whether it is working. All safeguarding records and procedures should be secure and understood by staff. The Ofsted inspection toolkit can be useful here because it sets out the standards against which inspectors evaluate provision.
For teachers, the most useful preparation is generally good everyday practice. Teachers should know the needs of the pupils they teach and understand the adaptations that help each pupil participate and learn. That means considering accessibility as part of the normal classroom planning, the resources available, and how clear instructions and teaching are for all students.
For parents, the new report card approach provides a clearer understanding rather than compressing everything into a single overall grade. Families of children with SEND should pay particular attention to the inclusion and to the written evidence behind the judgement, while it can also be helpful to ask the school specific questions about their approach.
Final thoughts
The current Ofsted inspection framework represents a significant change in how school quality is communicated. The single overall effectiveness grade has been replaced by a report card covering individual evaluation areas including inclusion, curriculum and teaching, achievement, attendance and behaviour, personal development and wellbeing, and leadership and governance, with early years and post-16 provision considered where applicable.
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