Ofsted will introduce some no-notice inspections of welfare provision at boarding and residential special schools.
These will be carried out separately from the education inspections of the schools, but where possible both would be carried out simultaneously.
In such cases, two days’ notice would be given, rather than the current five. However, where welfare is to be inspected alone, no notice would be given.
The education and childcare inspectorate said it had made the move following a recommendation from the Munro Review of Child Protection, published in May.
Ofsted has already proposed no-notice inspections for local authority child social care services, which were also recommended by Eileen Munro.
The new inspections will use the revisednational minimum standards for boarding and residential special schools, introduced by the government this month.
Monitoring reports for welfare will also be published – up to now, only education reports were.
Ofsted said a new published judgement would demonstrate the overall effectiveness of providers, and an annual opinion survey of each school would be taken among parents, carers, pupils and staff.
Chief inspector Miriam Rosen said: ‘The new framework for boarding and residential provision in schools will improve inspection and is designed to help improve the education and living experience of children residing in these schools.’
