Professional dialogue or procedural compliance? Interrogating Ofsted's 2025 education inspection framework

This article presents one of the first empirical studies of Ofsted's 2025 Education Inspection Framework, introduced following the Big Listen consultation and the removal of single-phrase judgements. Drawing on focus groups with 48 participants across three inspectorates, schools, academy trusts, universities and learned societies, we explored stakeholders’ lived experience of inspection reforms. Using a process-ontological lens, we theorise inspection as an evolving practice that clings to its history and entrenched evaluative logics, rather than as a static episodic event. The findings reveal persistent tensions, including the expansion of grading criteria that has increased pressure on schools, limited opportunities for professional dialogue, and a disconnect between inspection and school improvement in England. Comparative insights across England, Scotland and Wales highlight the advantages of collaborative, improvement-oriented approaches. This article contributes original empirical evidence to international debates on high-stakes inspection and provides policy-relevant insights into the development of more coherent, multi-agency approaches to inspection practices.