Ofsted’s enhanced inspections which assess how well colleges are meeting local skills needs were introduced at the start of the term. In May, Ofsted published its latest five-year strategy, which made it clear that all colleges in England will be paid a visit by inspectors within a four-year time frame under new “enhanced inspections”. Those visits, introduced in September, continue to feature the usual inspection criteria, such as quality of teaching, leadership, high needs and safeguarding, but this time with the added assessment of how well a college is meeting the skills needs in its local area too. This article looks at college feedback from the first 6 college inspections under the new strategy.
