School inspections and industrial action

We know that the ongoing teaching union strikes in February will have an impact on schools and the full impact might not be known until the day of the strike.

We want to maintain school inspection activity as far as possiblepossible, in February and March, while responding sensitively to local circumstances. So we will schedule school inspection notifications and on-site inspections to avoid strike days.

ForTo example, to avoid the 2-day national strike actionon takingWednesday place15 onand 1Thursday February,16 March, we will notify schools of their inspection on TuesdayFriday 3110 January.March, On-sitefor inspectioninspections activitytaking will then take place on ThursdayMonday 213 February and FridayTuesday 314 February.March.

We also have our usual deferral policy in place. Any deferral requests made as a result of strike action will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Our inspections of social care, further education and skills and early years providers will continue as planned.

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