Dear James

Your request for information

Thank you for your email dated 18 February 2010 sent to [email address] in which you requested the following information:

Summary of the response

We have been in contact by email to clarify the precise requirements of your request, as the original wording of the request asked for an empty dataset. As indicated in my previous email, we can provide maintained school inspection outcomes for the period 1996/97 to 2004/05 inclusive.

The Freedom of Information Act

We have dealt with your request in accordance with the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 2000.

I can confirm that Ofsted holds information as to the current and previous inspection grades of all schools where that school has been inspected since 1996 and we also hold incomplete data from 1993.

The data provided to you is restricted to schools which are currently open as, due to changes in the way data are held, Ofsted does not hold all the names and URNs of schools previously inspected but now closed. Therefore the data provided here only covers schools which, as of the beginning of 2010, were open and eligible for an Ofsted inspection. Data is also restricted to the main school-level judgements only, and excludes judgements made on a yes/no basis and judgements made about a particular key stage. This is due to the way data were held and stored in the past, which makes accessing large volumes of information very time-consuming and would breach the appropriate limit.

Under section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act a public authority, such as Ofsted, is not obliged to comply with a request if the cost of doing so would exceed the `appropriate limit'. The limit set for government departments is £600 per request or set of related requests. This figure equates to one staff member working for 24 hours at the hourly rate of £25.

In order to provide all the data being requested, Ofsted would need to extract data referring to 9 different years (1996/97 to 2004/05 inclusive). However, 1999/2000 straddled two frameworks, so data covering 10 different years would need to be extracted. We estimate that the time required to extract the data for each year would be approximately 2 hours. This includes referring back to original framework documents to clarify the judgements in each of the 6 different key stages as well as the school-level judgements for each year, creating a look up table for the analysis, joining to the judgement tables and exporting the data to excel. A further 30 minutes per year would be required for a preliminary quality assurance of the data, and this could be extended if any issues were found. To complete this work would take a total of 25 hours work. This is in addition to the estimated 18 hours already taken to provide this data.

Prior to 2005/06, schools were inspected under section 10 of the Education Act 1992 and subsequent amendments or successions. Judgements were made on a 7 point scale:

A grade of 0 was used if there was insufficient evidence available to make a secure judgement, and a grade of 8 indicated that the judgement recording statement did not apply to the school, for example where it covered a key stage not catered for in the school being inspected. A grade of 9 indicated that the judgement was not made.

New school inspection frameworks were introduced in September 1996, January 2000 and September 2003.

A series of spreadsheets attached with this letter will provide you with individual school-level inspection outcomes for schools inspected since 1996 which were open at the beginning of 2010.

I would like to note that I cannot verify the complete accuracy of every inspection judgement held in these spreadsheets. I can verify, however, that the aggregate figures before the removal of closed schools match those published at the time. It is also important to note that inspection judgements change over time so any time series analysis or year on year comparisons are likely to be interrupted by changes in inspection practice.

As stated above data is held prior to 1996 but the way data was held and stored at that time means the records are incomplete. Prior to 1996 the Annual Report of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector did not quote aggregate figures for volumes and outcomes of inspections. This forms an important part of our quality assurance when looking further back in time, and the absence of this independent check means we are less confident in the quality of the data. However, if you require this earlier data then please let me know.

If you feel we have not dealt with your request satisfactorily, you can contact me at [email address] to see if these matters can be resolved informally.

If you are dissatisfied with Ofsted's response or the handling of your request you may request a formal internal review. In order to do this, please write to the following address, explaining what areas of Ofsted's response you are unhappy with:

Email: [email address] or write to:

Head of Information Rights

Legal Services Division

Ofsted

Aviation House

125 Kingsway

London

WC2B 6SE

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you also have the right to apply to the Information Commissioner for a decision as to whether or not Ofsted have complied with its obligations under the FOI Act with respect to your request. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

FOI Case Reception Unit

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Yours sincerely,

Helen Barugh

Inspection Insight