Ofsted Annual Report: FE Quality Rises To 88%, Prison Education and Post-16 Careers Guidance Needs Improvement

Ofsted have released their 92 page annual report. This year’s Ofsted Annual Report looks across the early years, schools, children’s social care and further education and skills sectors and sees fantastic, transformative work being done by committed professionals up and down the country. But while most children experience a relatively smooth path to adulthood, for those with a less fortunate start in life that path can be strewn with obstacles. This is particularly true for children growing up in care.

Today’s report also raises concerns that the proliferation of children’s homes in areas where housing is cheaper suggests some operators are being motivated by profit, rather than the needs of children, which is bending the entire system out of shape.

Commenting ahead of his second Annual Report as His Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Sir Martyn Oliver said:

“The most vulnerable children in our society deserve loving and stable homes. Instead, profit motive is increasingly dictating the location and ownership of children’s homes. As a society, we are failing these children. We can and must do better.”

Education

This year’s Annual Report also finds disparities in outcomes for disadvantaged and vulnerable children across the education system. This begins with a lack of access to good quality early education and care in more deprived areas, which has a lasting impact on entire communities. In schools, the attainment gap between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged children remains stubborn, with poorer pupils lagging months behind their peers.

Severe absence three times higher than before the pandemic

Absence also remains an endemic problem across the school system. Severe absence – when children miss half or more of their schooling – is almost three times higher than before the pandemic. In the latest data, some 166,000 pupils were severely absent, with vulnerable and disadvantaged children over-represented among them.

Linked to attendance is the problem of poor behaviour. Today’s report says that too many children are spending too long out of school and falling out of step with the expectations of school life – which makes them more likely to challenge teachers and disrupt the learning of others. The influence of social media and smartphones is also partly responsible for poor behaviour, through its effect on pupils’ attention spans and by promoting disrespectful attitudes.

Increasingly, commentary suggests the impact of poor behaviour is playing a part in driving teachers out of the profession.

Even where schools take all the right steps to tackle poor behaviour, including making use of suspensions and – as a last resort – permanent exclusions, the prevalence of low-level disruption remains a significant issue. In 2023/24, permanent exclusion rates were the highest on record, and suspensions were up by a fifth – approaching one million. Four out of 10 permanent exclusions and five out of 10 suspensions resulted from persistent disruptive behaviour. Disadvantaged pupils are five times more likely to be permanently excluded.

Ofsted’s renewed education inspection

Under Ofsted’s renewed education five point inspection framework, which came into effect in November this year, inspectors will use the new focus on inclusion to look at how all of a provider’s policies and practices are working for different groups of children, particularly those who face the greatest barriers to success – such as economically disadvantaged children, those with SEND and those known to children’s social care.

In his Annual Report, Sir Martyn Oliver concludes:

“Inclusion matters. It matters because addressing the needs of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children demands a rigour and attention to detail that ultimately benefits all the children, pupils or learners in that setting – from those facing the greatest barriers, to those whose path to adulthood is more straightforward.

“As a country, we should measure our successes in education, children’s services and skills, both by how well we support the most economically disadvantaged and vulnerable, and by how much further we can push forward the boundaries of knowledge through higher learning. We have a duty to improve the lives and life chances of every child and every learner.

“The dedicated staff working in education and children’s social care are helping children and older learners achieve their potential – day by day and week by week. I would like to thank them all.”

Ofsted Identifies Barriers for post-16 students

Ofsted highlighted barriers for post-16 students that can have a major impact on their employment and career prospects. Ofsted’s third report on careers education focused on the post-16 careers guidance provided for students and learners from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.78 We found that careers guidance worked best when it was not an isolated aspect of college provision but was integrated into a course of study through the curriculum. There were challenges in providing meaningful and useful work experience for students/ learners. The quality of a provider’s careers guidance depended on the qualifications, knowledge and expertise of their careers adviser.

Despite this, many of the students/learners we spoke to were positive about the careers guidance
they had received from their college staff. They said this was important in helping them to develop the
knowledge and practical skills required for their next steps and future career pathways.

Some young people are very unlikely to receive any kind of careers education, advice or guidance after
they have left school.

Ofsted’s Final Year Under Old Grading System Shows Sector-Wide Quality Improvements:

The final snapshot before Ofsted’s November 2025 framework transition shows significant quality improvements across Further Education and Skills, but scratching beneath the surface reveals persistent challenges that demand attention, particularly in our prisons and around the integration of AI technology.

88% of FE and skills providers hold either ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’

The headline numbers are genuinely encouraging. As of August 2025, 88% of FE and skills providers held either ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ ratings – a 6 percentage point rise on the previous year.

Big Improvements for ITPs

Independent Training Providers saw the most notable improvement, jumping from 76% to 84% in the top two categories, while employer providers climbed from 85% to 92%. General FE colleges edged up to 86%, with apprenticeship quality rising to 88% of providers judged good or outstanding.

Prison Education Concerning: Not a single prison or young offender institution achieved ‘outstanding’ status.

While mainstream FE and Skills celebrates quality improvements, prison education remains stuck in a cycle of decline. Over a fifth of the 35 prisons inspected this year received lower overall grades, with more than half remaining unchanged.

Not a single prison or young offender institution achieved ‘outstanding’ status. Ofsted’s report doesn’t mince words about prison leaders failing to improve education quality in the secure estate, with neurodiverse prisoners denied the same support as other prisoners with learning difficulties.

Ofsted and AI Governance

AI had its own section for the first time in the Ofsted Annual report. Ofsted commissioned research on how early adopter schools and FE colleges are using artificial intelligence to support teaching and learning and to manage administrative systems. The research examined the role leaders are playing in embedding AI and managing the risks associated with its use. The findings have informed inspector training and operating guidelines on providers’ use of and response to AI. With the full report published in summer 2025, the sector now has clearer guidance on implementing AI tools whilst managing the ethical and practical challenges that come with this rapidly evolving technology.

Sector Reaction:

David Hughes, Chief Executive, Association of Colleges, said:

“The Ofsted annual report sets out a worrying picture of widespread poor behaviours and low attendance in secondary schools at a time when the number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) is touching one million. The recent post-16 white paper rightly focused on the transition from school at the age of 16, and proposes more work between schools and colleges to ensure more young people make that transition successfully. This report shows how challenging that will be, with poor attendance, exclusions and suspensions in schools rising and far too high, particularly for those from more disadvantaged households.

“With a new Ofsted inspection framework just starting to be implemented, our focus now is on how we support colleges to navigate what is a very different system and approach. The early signs are that colleges will fare well with the new and stronger focus on inclusion and SEND because of their commitment, systems and culture.”

Commenting on Ofsted’s annual report, Pepe Di’Iasio, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said:

“We welcome the spotlight that Ofsted is shining on the issues of challenging pupil behaviour and absence.

“This reflects what we hear from school leaders and it is clear that these problems have never fully recovered from the disruption caused by the Covid pandemic.

“However, inspection is, at best, a mirror to the system, and not a solution in itself.

“The real answers lie in ensuring that schools have the funding, staffing and specialist support needed to provide pastoral care and early interventions, and that we have in place the wider social support required to aid struggling families.

“It is often disadvantaged and vulnerable children who are affected by these issues as they face significant challenges in their lives, and addressing this is key to improving outcomes and closing gaps.”