Ofsted school inspectors quit after job becomes ‘treadmill’

OFSTED has lost two thirds of its inspectors, figures show, amid complaints that the job has become like a “treadmill”.

Since September 2015, 125 out of 175 school inspectors have left, according to data obtained by the Times Education Supplement (TES) magazine.

While another 154 have been recruited by Ofsted during the period, a former inspector warned that the “high turnover” of experienced staff is a worrying trend.

Mark Williams, who left the inspectorate in 2015, said that the widespread use of shorter inspections made the inspectors’ job into “a treadmill” and was contributing to people leaving. “After the shorter inspection came in, the volume of inspections that Ofsted was looking to do meant HMI were expected to do two inspections a week,” he told the TES. “You would be planning for a visit on one day, doing the

‘After the shorter inspection came in ... HMI were expected to do two inspections a week’

inspection and writing the report and then planning for the next inspection. It became a treadmill of inspection activity.”

Earlier this month, a public accounts committee report warned that Ofsted’s “one day” inspections risked failing to catch out substandard schools.