Guidance

Work and tasks of a contracted Ofsted inspector

Find out what tasks you will have if you contract as an Ofsted inspector.

Applies to England

Your role

Your role will be a team inspector.

You might also carry out quality assurance activities.

As a team inspector, you will:

  • complete all the tasks allocated by the lead inspector for that inspection
  • act in accordance with the applicable Ofsted framework and any other identified inspection requirements
  • prepare appropriately for an inspection by reading in advance any joining instructions or other material the lead inspector supplies

Your work on an inspection will be evaluated by the lead inspector.

Quality assurance work

As a contracted Ofsted inspector, you might be asked to carry out quality assurance specialist activity. This will involve:

  • completing the Stage 1 quality assurance review of summary inspection evidence and inspection outputs including:
    • reports
    • letters
    • advice notes
  • using criteria and levelled standards to evaluate the quality of inspection outputs
  • recording the quality of inspection outputs

Feedback

You will receive feedback on the quality of the services you have provided. We might use this information to inform further training and support. Where there are major shortcomings in quality then Ofsted reserves the right to apply remedies.

If your inspections or the provision of other services do not meet the standards required by Ofsted then we reserve the right to terminate our commercial arrangements with you.

Updates to this page

Published 19 January 2022
Last updated 26 June 2025 show all updates
  1. We've removed information about lead Ofsted inspector (OI) roles.

  2. First published.

Sign up for emails or print this page