Around 98% of Ofsted inspectors are working beyond their contracted hours, with three out of five inspectors working more than 10 additional hours each week, according to the FDA union.
A new report from the union for senior civil servants, Beyond the Framework: The people behind the inspections, says that inspectors have often fulfilled their weekly contracted hours by the time an inspection is completed. “They are then expected to write well-considered reports, attend meetings and training sessions and complete a range of other administrative and quality assurance tasks,” the report says.
Nearly 90% of inspectors who responded to the FDA survey which informed the report said this additional workload was harming their wellbeing and 47% said they regularly had to rearrange or cancel personal commitments due to the need to work outside of their contracted hours.
The FDA report has been published in response to the new Ofsted framework for inspections, which came into effect in November 2025. The new framework has scrapped single-word headline grades for schools – previously branding schools with grades of "outstanding", "good", "requires improvement", or "inadequate" – and replaced them with School Report Cards.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Headteachers said, as the change of approach was announced in September, that there was “much work to do now in order to design a fundamentally different long-term approach to inspection”.
On the findings of the new report, FDA general secretary, Dave Penman, said: “Recognising and addressing long-standing issues impacting the lives of inspectors is vital for the success of the new framework introduced by Ofsted.”
“If we want inspections to be meaningful, fair, and trusted, we must ensure that those delivering them are respected, supported, and heard,” Penman said. “That means recognising the human cost of current workloads, the impact burnout will have on the organisation’s ability to deliver, and reforming the system to prioritise quality over quantity.”
Penman added that educators “overwhelmingly want inspections to be more personal, more humane, and more focused on helping schools improve”.
According to the FDA report – which surveyed Ofsted inspector who are members of the FDA union in May 2025 and received 191 responses – 55% of inspectors believe that educators view them negatively.
In fact, the testimonials and data included in the FDA report suggest that Ofsted inspectors are “valued and respected by both parents and the sector”, and that “independent school inspections are considered essential by the majority”.
The FDA union said it is supportive of the reforms to the inspection process introduced by Ofsted, but that the success of these reforms “is reliant upon addressing the resourcing and workload issues highlighted in this report”.
The union said Ofsted should explore more flexible and innovative approaches to workload management, “including the use of emerging technologies such as AI to streamline administrative tasks and reduce unnecessary burdens on inspectors”.
It added: “Alongside this, there is a clear opportunity to enhance the training and development offer for HMI”.
The report suggests that Ofsted could adjust its requirements according to the complexity of the inspection – according to factors such as the size of the school, the complexity of the setting, or the likelihood of safeguarding concerns.
It also recommends that “inspections of significant complexity are not assigned to the same inspector back-to-back”.
Ofsted were contacted but declined to comment.