OFSTED held a webinar on Inspection and Governance in December 2022.
It explained the questions OFSTED will ask governors, which governors should attend the inspection and offered advice on how boards can fulfil their roles.
Below you can find the video and my summary of the most useful points made. I have also created a pdf transcript of the whole video which includes the substantive slides. This can be downloaded below and shared with colleagues.
Download OFSTED Inspection and Governance Webinar December 2022 (.pdf)
OFSTED Inspection and Governance Webinar: Summary of Key Points
Note: The following paragraphs are direct quotes from the webinar. Wording in bold highlights points I think are particularly useful.
Understanding Governance
Inspectors will look at the school’s website as one of the first activities they do, often before they even contact a school or have spoken to the Headteacher. The information that’s available on a school’s website can really help a lead inspector understand how a school’s governance is structured.
For example if you are part of a multi-academy trust then certainly inspectors will be looking for example for the scheme of delegation, so that document that outlines what different levels of governance, if there are different levels within the trust, are responsible for.
We try to make sure that the arrangements ensure as many people come and meet with inspectors as possible. We recognise that that’s not always possible and sometimes while a face-to-face meeting is always preferable it might be that lead inspectors have to pick up the phone and speak to the Chair of Governors for example.
The other element we discuss is obviously that invitation to the wider governing body, not just those that we’ve managed to speak to throughout the course of the process but every governor can come and listen to the final feedback meeting which comes at the end of the usually two-day process.
What is effective governance?
It’s important to note that when inspectors are looking at statutory duties they’re not just checking compliance, they’re seeking to ascertain how governors ensure that the school is compliant.
For example we wouldn’t expect governors to be checking the school’s single central record of recruitment checks themselves, we’d look to see whether they’re seeking assurance from the school that they’re keeping it up-to-date and that the Designated Safeguarding Lead is carrying out their duties.
The initial notification call is made by the inspection support team. They also send a list of information that schools must make available to inspectors by eight o’clock on the first day of the inspection on site and part of this is strategic documents about the school.
So examples for maintained schools are minutes of governing body meetings. For academies, minutes of trust board meetings and any other relevant strategic documents about governance or the trust that the school may have.
Our inspectors look at the documents to triangulate how governors carry out the three core functions and their statutory duties. The documents don’t need to be in any specific format, they can be digital or paper. What I would say is time is limited, we wouldn’t want to see the last 12 copies of governing body minutes; one, two or three is quite sufficient.
Some examples of how a trustee or governor fulfils their role:
- by governors addressing a range of educational issues within the school including disadvantaged pupils, pupils who’ve got special needs, staff workload and teacher recruitment (you could be asked about all of these, we could read about them in your minutes)
- checking on the school’s performance, looking at data when where necessary to ask questions about standards and having challenging conversations with school leaders about the school. Just because OFSTED doesn’t look at internal data doesn’t mean that governors shouldn’t be looking at it. Governors need to review performance data in key areas to ensure that they have an oversight of the school
- governors need to engage with pupils, staff, parents and the school community.
- in your governance meetings think about the information you access, what is it telling you and what else do you need to understand about what is going on in your school.
Meeting Governors On Inspection
We will encourage the school to invite as many governors or trustees as possible to meet inspectors during the inspection. We like to meet governors as part of a group but again we’ll be flexible according to governor availability.
What inspectors are doing, we’re wanting to explore how governors carry out the individual functions, so we might be asking questions such as:
- how do you ensure that the core functions of governance are carried out effectively in your school?
- what is your strategic vision for your school?
- how do you hold executive leaders to account?
- how do you ensure that this school complies with its statutory duties?
So we’re wanting to know how governors ensure that the right things happen. We’re wanting to know about those processes that are in place, how you know what’s working well in your school.
It’s worth us saying that the single central record is part of the statutory duties and when it comes to those statutory duties we expect governors to perform a strategic function not an operational one.
So the governors’ duty is to make sure that the processes are happening and that the school is fulfilling its duties, but it’s not the governors’ role to actively maintain a single central record for themselves. Governors need to assure themselves that it is being kept up-to-date and it is compliant, but they are not the ones responsible for actually doing so.
For example governors might assure themselves that these things are happening by regularly talking to leaders about the processes they go through and how leaders themselves ensure that the records are up-to-date. It’s the strategic level that governors are responsible for.
Questions From Viewers
What are the key documents governors need to look at to prepare for inspection?
We do not expect anybody no matter what role you play within your school to produce something solely for OFSTED. So please don’t have reams of documentation in files that sit on a shelf and often gather dust just waiting for that time when an inspector might call.
Because actually we want to know what do you find most useful as governors, what is it that you use day to day, week to week to support you in your role in holding leaders in school to account.
Something that is a really effective bit of evidence is the Headteacher’s report to governors, because governors you’re in charge of that and what goes into that so that’s a really good bit of evidence for us to have a look at, it’s got lots of information in.
Then we see the questions in the minutes that you’ve asked of the Headteacher and senior leaders, really effective.
In terms of the role of a governor in an inspection it’s essentially one meeting you’re requested to attend, a 30- to 40-minute meeting which is a discussion. So the inspector will be coming with questions that they want to ask in terms of what they’ve seen around the school, what they’ve already spoken to leaders about.
They’ll be coming with that list of the three key functions and the effectiveness of governance and it is essentially a conversation about exploring all of those elements with you. Other than that there isn’t other than attending feedback if you can make it and the option is always there, there isn’t anything else that you need to do as a governor or a governing body.
We look at minutes, but that’s just to get a sense of what you’ve discussed previously and if inspectors have managed to look at those minutes before they meet with you then you can expect some questions around, oh it was interesting that I noticed that in your last meeting you challenge the Headteacher about…can you just tell me a little bit more about why you did that, what’s happened as a result.
It’s preparing for that conversation and being confident that you know the school as a governor, you know the priorities that the Headteacher is setting because hopefully they’ve shared and agreed them with you.
Then you can evidence the influence that you’re having in terms of why you’re asking the Headteacher a particular question, why you’re asking for a particular piece of evidence and therefore what you’ve done with that and hopefully what has come from that as an impact or as a result.
Please do not worry that you may say the wrong thing because actually it takes quite a bit of evidence to tip an inspection judgement one way or the other.