Improving the way Ofsted inspects education
February 7, 2025
Ofsted want to know what you think about their proposed plans for inspecting schools and other settings where children and adults learn. This includes:
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- early years
- state-funded schools
- non-association independent schools
- further education and skills (FE and skills)
- initial teacher education (ITE)
In summary, they propose:
- Report cards – these would give parents and carers more detailed information than the current reports, including a new 5-point grading scale to evaluate more areas of a provider’s work and short summaries of what inspectors found.
- Education inspection toolkits – this tool shows providers and inspectors the evaluation areas that we’ll focus inspections on and how we’ll assess and grade providers (scroll down to see our toolkits).
- Inspection methodology – changes to how we carry out inspection.
- Full inspections and monitoring inspections, state-funded schools – we plan to end ungraded inspections of state-funded schools and change our monitoring programmes so that we can check that timely action is taken to raise standards.
- Identifying state-funded schools causing concern – a new approach to how we’ll place a school into a category of concern.
Read the full report and respond to the consultation.
On 6 November, Southend SEND Independent Forum (SSIF) and the SEND Local Offer Team co-hosted the first Southend SEND Information Day . The event was attended by over 150 parent carers and professionals, with more than 50 teams and services sharing information about the support they provide. Attendees also had the opportunity to take part in three presentations covering Social Care, Health, and Education. SSIF and the Local Offer Team would like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who attended, and to the many teams, organisations, services, and colleagues who gave their time, shared their knowledge, and helped make the day such a success. Your support and collaboration on the day were greatly appreciated. If you attended the event, we’d love to hear your thoughts — your feedback is invaluable in helping us shape and improve future events. Share your feedback here . Further details about the event, including information about the teams and services that attended is available on the Local Offer website . The presentation slides from the information sessions are available to view below. Thank you once again to everyone who supported or attended the Southend SEND Information Day. Please use the buttons below to access the PowerPoint presentations from the day .
πSouthend SEND Information Day π Southend SEND Independent Forum (SSIF), and the Southend SEND Local Offer Team are delighted to invite parent carers of children and young people with Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities (SEND), as well as professionals to our SEND Information Day. π
6 November 2025 π 9:00am to 3:00pm (drop in anytime) π Southend Civic Centre, Victoria Avenue, SS2 6ER. Come and meet a wide range of local services and organisations who support SEND families across Southend-on-Sea at our SEND Marketplace. You'll be able to speak with teams including The Specialist Teaching Service, Educational Psychology Service, Early Years Team, and many more. There will also be talks on key topics: βͺ 10am to 11am: Transitions from the Children with Disabilities Team to adult social care βͺ 11.30am to 12.30pm: Health information session; Decision making; young people with additional needs βͺ 1pm to 2pm: Collaboration Counts: Supporting your young person with SEND in education No booking needed, just drop-in at a time that suits you. Free tea, coffee and water will be available. Food can be bought from the Civic Centre cafe, or people are welcome to bring their own. Civic Centre parking is limited, so attendees are advised to use public transport or town centre car parks. Please note, the event is for adults and there will not be a creche provision or activities for children. The marketplace is open to all, but we kindly ask that babies and young children are not brought into the information sessions. Please contact the Local Offer Team at localoffer@southend.gov.uk with any questions. We look forward to welcoming you! Visit the Livewell site for more information.
The Children's Learning Disability Service (CLDS) is due to be recommissioned in 2027.
One of our favourite Events is our regular monthly coffee morning, where Parent Carers can get together to share their experiences. Every month we have the Local Offer team with us and invite 1 or 2 additional special guests from for example Health, Social Care, Education and more, to offer guidance and advice. There is also a sensory play creche available for your little ones aged 0-5 with Chaos & Calm. Come along and chat to other ParentCarers, get advice from one of our SEND support service guests and enjoy a hot drink with something sweet. Booking is not required.
