Toby Fisher successfully defends wide-ranging challenge to Ofsted inspection and reporting process.
In R (All Saints Academy Dunstable) v OFSTED [2024] EWHC 1792 (Admin), Cavanagh J. has dismissed a wide-ranging challenge to an Ofsted school inspection report, originally brought on 10 grounds. The challenge commenced as a root and branch attack on the lawfulness of Ofsted’s procedures and was narrowed, after permission, to a challenge to the fairness of the inspection process, and the adequacy of reasons provided for Ofsted’s finding that the overall effectiveness of the school was “inadequate”.
On the question of procedural fairness, the Court confirmed that where draft criticisms are shared with a party in advance of a final report, the detail required in those draft criticisms is context-specific and informed by the party’s familiarity with the issues, including through its prior engagement with those responsible for reaching the judgements contained in the report.
On the adequacy of reasons, the Court held that the well-known principles in South Buckinghamshire DC v Porter (No 2) [2003] 2 AC 558 and Clarke Homes Ltd v Secretary of State for the Environment [2017] PTSR 1081 were applicable to the education inspection context. Assessed against those principles, the Court held that the reasons contained within the inspection report were legally adequate, particularly when viewed in light of the purpose for which it was produced and the context in which it was received.
Toby Fisher acted for Ofsted.