October 2026: Education secretary planning Ofsted reforms
Education secretary Lucy Powell will make changes to Ofsted's school inspection system.
There has been no official announcement, but reporting (including in Schools Week and The Guardian) suggest that changes might be communicated in the "next few months". There are currently no confirmed details about the scale of the change, or which elements of inspection might be overhauled.
There are no immediate changes to the inspection process, and Ofsted has confirmed it will not be pausing graded inspections.
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September 2026: Ofsted adds a similar schools comparison to the IDSR
From September 2026, your inspection data summary report (IDSR) includes a new "versus similar school average" comparison, sitting alongside the existing comparison against the national average.