AHDS response to future of inspection consultation
AHDS has responded to the September 2025 consultation on the future of school inspection. Our response highlighted AHDS concerns about the nature of the consultation and the narrow look it appears to be taken to reimagining scrutiny for Scottish education.
Members wishing to respond to the consultation can do so on the consultation's webpage (https://consult.gov.scot/education-scotland/school_inspections_are_changing/) or by e-mailing their response to SchoolInspectionConsultation@educationscotland.gov.scot
The full text of our response was as follows:
AHDS response: School inspections are changing: shape what’s next
AHDS considers the current consultation to be unambitious and overly narrow in scope when it comes to reshaping inspection as we move towards a new and independent inspectorate. The questions posed and the restricted opportunity for comment suggests minimal change is likely in any way which would lead to greater impact for schools or to better support system-wide improvement.
AHDS remains firmly of the view that (while the work of most school inspection teams is positively received by members) the sample approach, combined with moment-in-time published summative judgements, fails to deliver an effective contribution to system wide improvement. Given the reality that the resource is not available for a much-increased frequency of inspection, a fuller reimagining of the scrutiny of school and nursery education is required.
Instead of inspection being an overlay which scrutinises a small number of schools each year, the focus should be on ensuring that our system operates effectively to ensure school improvement. This means stepping back from the primary activity of HMIe being individual school inspections. Instead, the system of scrutiny should follow system design. By that, we mean recognising the crucial role of local authorities in Scottish education. They are the bodies responsible for funding, staffing, supporting and challenging schools.
An inspection system which regularly works with Local Authorities to examine their systems and approaches would be a much more efficient mechanism to promote system wide improvement. The process could offer comparisons between and insights from different local authorities. It could shine a light on differential inputs, expectations, actions and outcomes across the country. Crucial in such an approach would be seeking assurance that local authorities know their schools well and support improvement across their school estate. This would offer much greater reach and impact for the resource devoted to HMIe. It would also promote a formative system-level approach, moving away from the negative implications associated with the irregular crescendo of engagement with individual schools and the high-stakes, summative, outputs flowing from that process.
The AHDS response to the HMIe consultation follows but should be read in the context of our overall argument that a fundamental change in approach to inspection is required. For completeness, it is our view that such a change should also address the unnecessary over-inspection of nursery schools and classes, which does not represent the best use of resources allocated to inspection.
Greg Dempster
AHDS General Secretary
07 October 2025
Section 1: People involved in inspection
1.1 To what extent do you agree or disagree that having associate assessors in inspection teams strengthens inspection?
Agree
1.2 To what extent do you agree or disagree that lay members should be part of inspection teams?
Neutral
1.3 Senior leaders in schools are invited to join parts of the inspection process, such as observing learning alongside inspectors or taking part in professional discussions with the inspection team. To what extent do you agree or disagree that this strengthens inspection?
Agree strongly
1.4 To what extent do you agree or disagree that local authority staff/proprietors of independent schools should contribute to school inspections by sharing relevant knowledge about the local context, including existing partnerships and support available to the school?
Agree strongly
1.5 Inspectors already gather the views of children and young people through questionnaires, focus groups, and direct conversations. To what extent do you agree or disagree that children and young people should have increased opportunities to contribute to inspection?
Agree
If you answered 'strongly agree' or 'agree', what approaches would ensure children and young people can meaningfully share their views during inspection?
"Knowing children’s names & different needs is an essential part of ensuring that their views are effectively and usefully elicited. This might be more effectively achieved through activities prior to inspection with staff they are familiar with and/or providing prior access to materials which will help them understand the types of questions they might be faced with and the ways in which those discussions might be facilitated."
1.6 Inspectors already gather the views of staff through questionnaires, focus groups and direct conversations. To what extent do you agree or disagree that school staff should have increased opportunities to share their views during inspection?
Agree
If you answered 'strongly agree' or 'agree', what approaches would ensure school staff can meaningfully share their views during inspection?
"Ultimately, the inspection experience and outputs are about the work of the school staff team. They should be afforded greater opportunity to engage with any process of inspection while underway and the subsequent reports flowing from it – prior to any public facing report or publication."
1.7. Inspectors already gather the views of parents and carers through questionnaires, focus groups and meeting the Chair of the Parent Council. To what extent do you agree or disagree that parents and carers should have increased opportunities to share their views during inspection?
Agree
If you answered 'strongly agree' or 'agree', what approaches would ensure parents and carers can meaningfully share their views during inspection?
"Members report that some parents are intimidated by the formal approach of meetings, suggesting that a more open and relaxed approach would support greater engagement. This point is about the nature of engagement with parents rather than a call for more or less engagement."
Section 2: Inspection frequency and selection
2.1 To what extent do you agree or disagree that the current sampling model, where around 10% of schools in Scotland are inspected each year, should continue?
Neutral
2.2 In your view, how should schools be selected for inspection?
Combined approach: a combination of a clear cycle for all schools, with additional inspection based on risk
2.3 In future, how often do you think each school should be inspected?
None of the above
Do you have a different view on how often inspections should take place?
"When asking members about the frequency of inspections, the response is complex. Some would like to see more frequent inspections because the dialogue and professional discussions with inspectors are valuable, also because they do not like the idea that a negative inspection outcome can remain as the most recent inspection finding for such a long period of time.
Others are very clear that this is the wrong question. The frequency of school inspections is immaterial as inspection is not the way to support school improvement. Instead Local Authority systems and staffing to support schools must be properly resourced and this system-level driver of quality and improvement should be the focus of inspection activity on a regular and risk-based basis."
Section 3: Use of grades in inspection
3.1 To what extent do you agree or disagree that using grades helps provide a clear overview of how well a school is doing?
Disagree strongly
"Grades provide an over-simplified moment in time assessment of how a school is performing against a scale which offers no insight into the school’s journey (or its recent or likely trajectory). Further, as it is a moment in time assessment, it can be out of date as soon as the ink is dry yet stands for print as an unmoving judgement for years to come."
3.2 To what extent do you agree or disagree that grades help schools, parents, and local authorities/proprietors of independent schools understand what needs to improve?
Disagree strongly
3.3 To what extent do you agree or disagree that grades can oversimplify what is happening in a school?
Agree strongly
3.4 Do you think school inspections should continue to use grades to summarise how well a school is performing?
No
3.5 If grades continue to be used, what should happen to the current six-point scale? Please select the one option that best reflects your view.
Use a shorter grading scale with fewer points and descriptions
"AHDS does not support the retention of gradings. These give the illusion of telling the story of the school but do not achieve that goal."
3.6 If school inspection no longer used grades to evaluate and report on key areas, how should inspection reports show the quality of education in a school?
Please select all options that apply.
A clear written summary explaining the strengths and areas for improvement
Section 4: Notification of inspection
4.1 How much notice do you think should schools receive before an inspection?
"Other" (please comment in the box below)
"When AHDS asks members about the notice period for inspection, three key points always arise:
- Greater consideration must be taken of holiday periods. Staff and school leaders are exhausted as school holiday periods approach. Receiving notification of inspection prior to a holiday means that holiday period is effectively lost for those staff. (We recognise that this is linked to the notice period and to the need for inspectors to be active during term time to get through the number of inspections required. However, no notification should be sent to a school prior to a holiday period when the inspection will take place after it).
- Provide more notice – to reduce the pressurised period prior to inspection and all to enable the school to put its best foot forward for inspection.
- Reduce the notice period – “Come and see us as we are” removing the stressful lead up and reducing the differences in what inspectors see as a result of differing levels of capacity to ‘freshen up the paintwork’ before inspectors arrive."
Section 5: Pre-inspection
5.1 To what extent do you agree or disagree that the self-evaluation summary helps make sure that inspection starts with the school’s own view of its strengths and development areas?
Agree strongly
5.2 To what extent do you agree or disagree that schools should be able to use existing documents - like their Standards and Quality Report and their School Improvement Plan - instead of writing a separate self-evaluation summary for inspection?
Agree strongly
5.3. How important is it to gather views from each of the following groups before an inspection?
Section 6: Design and content of a school inspection framework
6.1 Which of the following best describes your view on the format of a new school inspection framework?
One main framework for all schools with guidance that can be adapted for each different type of school
6.2 To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statements about a school inspection framework?
6.3. How important do you think each of these areas is for inclusion in a school inspection framework?
Do you think anything is missing from this list? Please suggest any other areas you consider important.
"Specifically in relation to nursery provision, AHDS members are concerned about conflicting expectations from HMIe and Care Inspectorate. While the shared inspection framework was envisaged as a way to guard against this, there are still two organisations inspecting with different cultures and inspection teams. This cannot be fully addressed through an inspection framework but needs to be part of a more ambitious re-imagining of how we support and ensure quality provision.
Again, this would best be ensured by designing a scrutiny mechanism which works in step with system design, so focusses inspection to ensure the system is working properly rather than having a moment in time look at individual units. Part of this re-design must be the removal of dual inspection of nurseries and nursery classes."
Section 7: Reporting on the outcome of inspections
7.1 How should inspection findings be presented to different audiences? Please select the option which best reflects your view.
X Two inspection reports – one with detailed information for schools and local authorities/proprietors of independent schools, and a shorter, easy-to-understand version for parents and carers
"This is a very difficult question to respond to using the options above. The main reason for that is that inspections currently happen so infrequently that they do not offer the assurance often ascribed to them. It also depends on the nature of findings reports – if formative and focused, they will be of most use to the staff team in schools. Whereas, a report for parents would be most beneficial if it offered confidence statements and assurance – thought the gap between inspections means that any such report has a very limited shelf-life and much more system-wide assurance could be gained by regular focused inspections on the degree to which local authorities were performing their improvement function in conjunction with schools."
7.2 What do you think are effective ways of sharing inspection findings with children and young people?
"AHDS members are from ELCs, primaries and ASN schools. Inspection outcomes are best delivered in these settings by staff who know their learners, rather than via any additional paperwork or processes developed by or for HMIe."
7.3 What makes an inspection report useful to you? Please select all that apply.
X Language and content which reflects the context of the school
X Clear summary of strengths and areas for development
X Timely publication after the inspection
X Clear explanation of what the school / local authority / proprietor of independent schools is expected to do next
X Indication of the support needed to make improvements
"An inspection report would be useful if it performs a formative function rather than a summative judgement about a school’s performance at one moment in time.
This means understanding the current context of a school, including the resources available to it and the parameters it is operating in locally. Any report needs to be produced swiftly following a visit, it must be clear about key areas for development and next steps, including any planned follow up engagement.
A public facing summative report acts against the objective of enabling improvement. This is particularly the case when reports are published at the same time as the staff team see them as the negatives inevitably become the focus – politically and in the media – which draws energy away from next steps on an improvement journey.
All of this would be better delivered though a formative process led by local authorities – a process and level of support which could be inspected and assured by inspection of local authorities, rather than schools."
7.4 From the list below, which three features of inspection reporting do you think matter most?
X Language and content which reflects the context of the school
X Clear summary of strengths and areas for development
Timely publication after the inspection
Clear explanation of any inspection grades if these are part of the inspection
Examples of effective practice
Recommendations for improvement
X Clear explanation of what the school / local authority / proprietor of independent schools is expected to do next
Indication of the support needed to make improvements
Any planned follow-up activity by HM Inspectors
Section 8: Inspecting nursery classes
8.1 To what extent do you agree or disagree that, when a nursery class is included in a school inspection, its evaluation should be reported separately from the rest of the school?
Disagree
Section 9: Inspection follow-up
9.1 In what circumstances do you think HM Inspectors should engage with a school after an inspection?
When HM Inspectors establish that a school needs support to make improvements
Other (please comment in the box below)
"Where HMIe has determined that a school needs support to make improvements it would seem appropriate that this resulted in further engagement. The primary reason for this would be that HMIe would have the fullest understanding of their findings and should seek to assist the school in acting upon them.
However, this reinforces the core AHDS position that the current system of school inspection does not align with system design. Local authorities support improvement in schools and their systems to support standards and quality improvement should therefore be the focus of inspection. Seeking to meaningfully perform this function across Scottish Education would require a much larger budget and cadre of inspectors than is currently the case."