Ofsted

The inspectorate for schools, nurseries and children's social care. It does not handle individual complaints about your child.

What it is

The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills inspects and regulates services for children and young people, including schools, early years providers, and children's social care.

Following the government's 2024 announcement, single-word overall judgements for schools were removed and replaced with a broader report card approach — so a school inspected recently may not carry a single grade.

Where it applies

State schools, most early years settings, further education, and independent schools inspected by Ofsted rather than by ISI.

How it works

Inspections cover quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and management, with a separate judgement for early years and sixth form where relevant. Safeguarding must be effective.

Ofsted also runs Parent View, the online questionnaire inspectors look at.

Crucially, Ofsted does not investigate individual complaints about how a school treated one child. It logs them as intelligence for future inspection.

What you can ask for

Read the most recent report before choosing a school, and read what it says about SEND and about behaviour rather than the headline.

If you have a concern about your child, use the school's complaints procedure — Ofsted is not the route and going there first usually costs time.

You can complain to Ofsted about a school as a whole where the issue affects pupils generally, and it may inform an inspection.

Where to get help

reports.ofsted.gov.uk for reports. Parent View for the questionnaire.