Data on Ofsted inspections and visits: deferring, pausing and gathering additional evidence
A breakdown of inspections where Ofsted considered requests to defer or pause an inspection or visit, as well as where inspections required additional evidence.
Applies to England
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Details
Providers can request that Ofsted defer or pause an inspection or visit. This dataset shows how many requests to defer or pause were accepted and how many were declined between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025.
As part of Ofsted’s quality assurance process, we may determine that additional evidence is needed to secure the inspection evidence base and final outcomes. This dataset also includes the number of inspections between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025 where the evidence base was deemed incomplete and further evidence was gathered. It also includes the number of inspections where the overall effectiveness grades changed as a result of this process.
All data relates to inspections of early years providers, further education and skills providers, schools, and social care providers.
For further details read our deferrals policy.