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HM INSPECTORATE OF EDUCATION: ANNUAL REPORT 2003/04

5. How we have performed over the last three years

This year has also seen us come to the end of our first three-year Corporate Plan. Our move to Agency status in 2001 was a response to the changes in roles and functions brought about by devolution. It also reflected an increasing emphasis in Scotland and beyond on the need for independent, rigorous evaluation of the education system.

As a result of the move to Agency status and other factors, the last three years have been a period of great change. We have moved from a fairly simple staffing structure of inspectors, corporate services staff and associate assessors to a more complex one which now also includes significantly more associate assessors, part-time inspectors and lay members. We are also now preparing for radical changes in where our staff will be based across Scotland.

Throughout this period we have:

• met all of our main targets and in some cases exceeded them
• aimed to publish an inspection report on every primary school in the seven year period from 2002 to 2009 and on every secondary school in the six year period from 2002 to 2008
• introduced a more proportionate model of school inspections which includes a core inspection with proportionate follow-through activities
• new inspections maintain the rigour and independence of previous inspection models
• follow-through activity is proportionate to, and dependent on, the outcomes of the core inspection
• placed greater emphasis on supporting improvement by working alongside schools and education authorities
• successfully established major new areas of inspection - the development of the programme of education authority inspections and the establishment of a programme of integrated inspections, jointly with the Care Commission, of education and care for young children and those residential special education settings
• undergone significant internal restructuring to deliver improved business effectiveness
• repositioned the role of HMIE in the education system.

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