The report sets out Ofsted’s performance, finances and key developments across the year.
Here are some of the key findings across education and children’s social care
A new approach to education inspection
September 2025 saw us set out our renewed education inspection framework. We have replaced single-word summary grades with new-style report cards, providing more
nuanced assessments to help parents, carers and professionals understand the quality of education provision. Before the framework launched in November 2025, we completed 45 test visits and pilot inspections. Since then, we have inspected 1,420 state-funded schools, 1,380 of which were full inspections.
Strengthening regulation of early years providers
This year, we risk-assessed around 14,800 notifications from around 9,440 early years providers – a 24% increase from last year. We completed 970 inspections after hearing concerns, 55% of which were unannounced. Since April 2026, we have moved to more frequent inspections – visiting settings at least every 4 years rather than every 6 years – and inspecting newly registered settings within 18 months of registration.
Unprecedented growth in children’s homes
Rapid growth in the number of children’s homes applying to register with Ofsted has created significant pressure on the system, meaning it has taken longer than usual to process applications. Around 350 applications were withdrawn, refused or closed this year. Despite seeing the highest number of applications to register children’s homes in our history, there are still not enough of the right homes in the right places to meet children’s needs. The uneven distribution means that some regions are saturated, while others have gaps in the type and number of homes available. We recently updated the sector on the prioritisation criteria and expected timeframes for processing children’s home registrations and explained the reasons for these delays.
Tackling unregistered and illegal provision
This year, our unregistered schools team opened 260 investigations and carried out 130 inspections of suspected unregistered schools, issuing 23 warning notices to 20 settings. Going forward, the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 will address a long-standing gap in our enforcement toolkit and strengthen our ability to investigate and close these places down.
We remain deeply concerned that significant numbers of children in care – including those with the most complex needs – continue to be placed in unregistered homes with no regulatory oversight. This year, our investigators identified 710 unregistered children’s homes, and most were issued with warning letters. Five criminal investigations were carried out, leading to prosecutions in 2 cases. New powers under the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act will soon allow us to impose fines on those operating illegal provision, and a larger investigation team is being established to build on these powers. We have also recently launched a consultation on improving the way we inspect children’s social care, which includes a proposal to make the use of unregistered children’s homes a limiting criterion in our inspections of local authority children’s services.
A growing and more settled workforce
We welcomed 215 new inspectors during the year and have seen a significant increase in applications for inspection roles. Staff turnover fell from 10.6% to 8.6%, and the Civil Service People Survey engagement score rose to 66% – above the Civil Service benchmark of 65%, and up 2 percentage points on the previous year.