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Welcome
The
Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted), officially the
Office of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools in
England, was set up on 1 September 1992. It is a
non-ministerial government department, independent from the
Department for Education & Skills (DfES). |
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| Ofsted's remit is
to improve standards of achievement and quality of education
through regular independent inspection, public reporting and
informed independent advice. |
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| The principal task, for Ofsted, is the
management of the system of school inspection defined originally
by the Education (Schools) Act 1992. This provides for the
regular inspection of all 24,000 schools in England that are
wholly or mainly state-funded. Inspections of schools occur,
at least, every 6 years. Local Education Authorities are
inspected by Ofsted and the Audit Commission at least every 5 years.
Birmingham's Ofsted inspection
Birmingham LEA was inspected in January 2002. The inspection
process involves a series of interviews with senior LEA staff,
with written reports from the LEA about every aspect of Birmingham
Education Service that is under review by Ofsted.
These web pages provide the reports
from Birmingham LEA for that review, starting with:
OFSTED's report was very positive about the quality of the
Education Service in Birmingham:
"Birmingham local education
authority is one of a very small number of LEAs which stand as
an example to all authorities of what can be done, even in the
most demanding urban environments."
See the Action Plan in response to the 2002 Ofsted /
Audit Commission Inspection. The document provides details
of the Ofsted recommendations and actions proposed by Birmingham
LEA to meet them.
Each school's Ofsted report is
available from the individual school pages in the Schools
Directory.
The role of Ofsted includes
inspections of and reports on
 | initial
teacher training courses; |
| the private,
voluntary and independent nursery sector; |
| independent
schools; |
| LEA-funded youth
services; |
| the impact of
government initiatives such as Education Action Zones and Excellence in Cities; |
| all 16-19
education and training in sixth form and further education
colleges; |
| the overall planning
of education and training provision for post-16 learners
throughout England; |
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all early years child care and education. |
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