Records of the Office for Standards in Education

KT

1992-2017

Records of the Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED) relating to the improvement of educational standards.

OFSTED's annual reports and corporate plan are in KT 1; digital records in KT 5.

Annual reports of the OFSTED Complaints Adjudicator are in KT 3.

Records relating to the establishment of OFSTED are in KT 17.

KT 2 and KT 4 are not used.

For series created for regularly archived websites, please see the separate Websites Division.

Public Record(s)

English

18 series

Subject to 30 year closure unless otherwise stated

from 1998 Office for Standards in Education

The Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED) is a non-ministerial government department established in September 1992 under the Education (Schools) Act 1992.

The Office (from 1992) was headed by Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools in England (HMCI), Professor Stewart Sutherland, who was also the then vice-chancellor of the University of London. OFSTED is independent from the Department for Education, but HMCI has the broad statutory duty to keep the Secretary of State for Education informed about standards of achievement, quality of education, efficiency of financial and other management and the development of values in schools in England. Inspections carried out by independent teams of inspectors, led by a registered inspector, working under contract to OFSTED

HMCI offers advice at the Secretary of State's request and on any other occasion and is free to report on any matter related to his functions and to publish findings. HMCI presents an annual report to Parliament. In addition to its broad duties, which are developments of the traditional role of Her Majesty's Inspectors who form the professional staff of the new department, OFSTED has a remit to establish, monitor and regulate a new independent inspection system for maintained schools in England.

From 1992 OFSTED, through this system, intended to provide a full inspection for every secondary, primary and special school in the state system every four years. The independent inspection of secondary schools was planned to begin in September 1993 and for other schools one year later. The first four year cycle of inspections was completed for secondary schools in 1997 and for primary and special schools the following year. Henceforth, a six yearly inspection cycle was introduced.