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Ofsted has had a higher proportion of complaints about school inspections than any of its other main remits, as revealed in the watchdog’s annual report for 2025-26.

Five per cent of Ofsted’s school inspection activity resulted in a complaint, more than early years, further education and social care.

It is also higher than the figures for complaints about school inspections in the previous two years. The data is the first to be published since Ofsted moved to its report card system last November.

Under the new framework, Ofsted no longer provides an overall effectiveness grade but instead grades schools across at least six evaluation areas using a new five-point score.

It also no longer carries out ungraded inspections, unlike under its previous framework.

Ofsted inspection complaints data

There were 220 complaints made about 4,640 inspection activities in 2025-26, according to the report published today.

The most common category of complaint was those relating to the “judgement, conduct and administration” of the inspection activity.

In , the last full academic year of graded inspections, 3 per cent of all school inspection activities led to complaints. There were 280 complaints from 8,360 inspection activities.

Further education inspections resulted in a higher proportion of complaints than schools in 2023-24.

The proportion increased again to 4 per cent in 2024-25, when there were 310 complaints from 8,030 inspection activities.

Schools did not receive an overall grade following the government’s move to scrap single-word judgements at the beginning of that academic year.

Ofsted defines inspection activities as those including all inspection activities, visits and any other regulatory activities.

“These include telephone regulatory events, such as an interview with a provider to follow up on concerns or notifications received,” the report says.

As Ofsted only provides data on complaints made about all inspection activity, it is not clear from this report how many complaints were made specifically about full graded inspections.

Inspections ‘more human’, says chief inspector

In the report, Ofsted’s chief inspector Sir Martyn Oliver says that inspections under the report card framework are “more human”, according to feedback.

“I’m pleased to say that we’ve been hearing regular feedback, much of which describes this as a fairer, more human - and rigorous - process that focuses on standards of education,” he says.

Sir Martyn adds in the report: “We cannot take away all the stress of inspection. But we can reduce unnecessary stress, and we’re being told that changes like the planning call, reflection meetings, and the introduction of the Ofsted nominee role are helping to do just that.”

His comments come after recent findings suggested that headteachers are “overwhelmingly negative” about Ofsted’s latest inspection regime.

Exclusive analysis by ����Vlog and FFT Education Datalab from published inspection reports has previously shown that more than one-in-three schools inspected to date will face a monitoring inspection under Ofsted’s current system.

Increase in unregistered school inspections

Ofsted has increased the number of unregistered school inspections it has carried out compared with the previous year.

The unregistered schools team carried out 130 inspections in 2025-26, compared with 90 in 2024-25.

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act, which became law in April 2026, has provided Ofsted with more powers to investigate and seize evidence on illegal unregistered independent schools.

Over £300K spent on consultants

The watchdog’s spending on consultancy and agency staff has gone up in 2025-26, according to the accounts.

Ofsted spent £310,000 on consultants for 2025-26, up from £174,000 the previous year.

Temporary and agency staff spending has increased from £3,405,000 in 2024-25 to £4,953,000 a year later.

The report notes that “volumes of work and staff vacancies meant that additional temporary and agency staff were required across administrative, legal and data roles in 2025-26”.

����Vlog has asked if any of the temporary or agency staff were used in inspection activities.

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