How does inspection and review support improvement?
In Scotland, inspection supports improvement, provides assurance and public accountability.
Our approach to improvement is based on providers evaluating their own work and taking action to plan for any necessary improvements.
Self-evaluation
The quality frameworks enable providers to self-evaluate. They use the same framework which inspectors use to evaluate the quality of education provision as part of inspection. We develop these quality frameworks in partnership with stakeholders.
We focus on how well an establishment or service can self-evaluate and drive its own improvement.
We start an inspection by understanding the provider’s self-evaluation. We work with staff to identify key themes from self-evaluation, to help focus our inspection activity.
Where a provider identifies a priority for improvement and takes action to improve, we recognise this thus verifying the provider’s own evaluation and supporting their journey of continuous improvement.
At the end of the inspection, we report on the provider’s capacity for continuous improvement.
Constructive professional dialogue
We give priority to supporting improvement through constructive professional dialogue. This is one of our most valuable tools when engaging with staff during inspections.
Providers value discussions with inspectors as they can be contextualised to particular local concerns. They also value the knowledge HM Inspectors have of:
- quality frameworks
- national policy
- practice observed across the country
This enhances the credibility of the interaction. Through discussion, inspectors signpost effective practice from which others can learn and get advice and guidance about improved ways of working. This promotes improvement and innovation.
Evidence gathered through inspection
We use the evidence gathered through inspection to promote improvement at a local and national level.
At a local level inspection teams gather evidence and evaluate what is working well and areas for improvement. This promotes improvement within a service or establishment.
The scope of our inspection at a local level gives us an evidence base from observing practice at first hand across the country. This evidence base enables us to draw conclusions about strengths and aspects for development at a national level.
We use findings from inspection to provide Scottish Ministers and their officials with evidence-based advice. This informs policy development and encourages improvement throughout the Scottish education system. We focus on children’s and young people’s learning and outcomes for learners.
Through observing practice at first hand, inspectors comment on the implementation of national policy and programme and the implementation on children’s and young people’s learning, success and achievement.
In the school sector, the evidence and evaluation grades feed directly into the evidence base for the National Improvement Framework (NIF). This informs the national improvement activity the Scottish Government and partners take forward each year.
Publishing inspection findings
We promote collective engagement in learning and improvement through publishing our inspection findings. This enables us to feed back the evidence we have gathered of strengths and areas for development. As well as giving assurance, providers use our findings to inform their next steps for further improvement.
Our approaches to inspection encourage providers to share learning and build on each other’s successes. We achieve this by sharing outstanding and effective practice identified through inspection more widely so that others can learn from it. This supports a culture of collaboration within and across services and establishments to drive innovation and collective improvement.
Addressing areas of improvement
In some cases, we may identify that the quality of education is not good enough and the approach to improvement at a local level is not working. Here, we undertake further inspection activity. This supports providers to address areas for improvement and secure better outcomes for learners.
We report on the progress a service or establishment makes, to address areas for improvement.
Associate Assessors
Our approaches to inspection use the collective expertise within Scottish education to promote improvement. HM Inspectors do not always carry out inspections on their own. We value the knowledge, skills and expertise of current practitioners from across sectors and services. In almost all inspection teams, we're joined by practitioners from relevant sectors. These practitioners are known as Associate Assessors.
Associate Assessors also benefit from being part of inspection teams. They develop skills, knowledge and understanding from training with and working alongside inspectors. They get valuable experience of evaluating practice using quality frameworks and observing practice in other parts of Scotland. This helps to build their capacity in evaluating quality and improvement in education. They can use it with maximum impact to support their journey of continuous improvement in their own establishment or service and locality.