Ofsted equality objectives progress review: supporting data as of 31 March 2023 (2024)

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Introduction

Ofsted reports progress against its equality objectives in its annual report and accounts. This report provides supporting data about our workforce profile and recruitment data by protected characteristic. You can view previous reports for our equality objectives 2020 to 2022.

Under the Public Sector Equality Duty, we have a specific duty to publish information relating to the protected characteristics of our employees. Because one of our equality objectives focuses on increasing representation of some groups, we publish information relating to our workforce demographics and recruitment outcomes.

In this report, we have rounded to whole figures. This means that some data sets may not add up to 100% and some figures are rounded down to 0% (even though they do represent more than zero employees in reality). The data is based on what information individuals have chosen to declare to the organisation about their protected characteristics and other sensitive details. We are only able to report the data that individuals have provided us with.

Workforce profile

Age

Figure 1: Age profile between 2021 and 2023

Year	16-29	30-39	40-49	50-59	60-64	65+	Total employees
2023	9	21	31	30	7	1	2050
2022	7	21	30	32	8	2	1,827
2021	9	22	29	31	7	2	1,784

Disability

Figure 2: Disability profile between 2021 and 2023

Year	Disabled	Not disabled	Not known/ declared	Total employees
2023	8	84	8	2050
2022	8	83	8	1,827
2021	8	83	10	1,784

Mental health and well-being

Ofsted has Disability Confident Leader status. This includes a commitment to voluntarily report on our workforce’s mental health. This information is collected annually through the Civil Service People Survey (CSPS). Our last report showed that, in 2023, people who responded to the survey reported that their mental health was:

PERMA Index and Proxy Stress Index

TheCSPSuses a measurement called theProxy Stress Indexto understand the conditions that contribute to stressful environments. The lower the score, the less stressful the environment. Ofsted had a Proxy Stress Index score of 24% in 2023, which is an increase of one percentage point from 2022. The score for all civil servants in 2023 was 27%.

There is a second measurement known as the PERMA Index, which measures the extent to which employees are flourishing at work in terms of well-being and happiness. Our PERMA score was 79% in 2023. This has remained the same since 2022. The PERMA index score for all civil servants during 2023 was 74%.

Ethnicity

This data is presented using the standards set out in the Race Disparity Unit recommendations on ethnicity reporting.

Table 1: Ethnicity profile between 2021 and 2023: percentage of employees in ethnicity categories

Year	% White	% Asian	% Black	% Mixed	% Other	% Not known/declared
2023	84	6	4	1	0	4
2022	85	6	3	0	1	4
2021	86	6	3	0	2	4

^{Note: Due to rounding, numbers in tables do not add up to 100.}

Religious belief

Table 2: Religious profile between 2021 and 2023: percentage of employees in religious belief categories

Religion or belief	2021	2022	2023
No religion	37	39	40
Christian	45	45	44
Buddhist	[u]	[u]	[u]
Hindu	1	1	1
Jewish	[u]	[u]	[u]
Muslim	2	2	3
Sikh	1	1	1
Other	2	1	1
Not known/declared	11	10	9

^{Note: [u] = Percentages relating to fewer than 10 individuals have been suppressed.
Due to rounding, numbers in tables do not add up to 100.}

Gender

Figure 3: Gender profile between 2021 and 2023

Year	Female	Male	Total number of employees
2023	69	31	2050
2022	67	33	1,827
2021	67	33	1,784

Sexual orientation

Figure 4: Sexual orientation profile between 2020 and 2022

Year	Straight or heterosexual	LGB/Other	Not known/ declared	Total number of employees
2023	83	7	10	2050
2022	82	7	11	1,827
2021	80	7	12	1,784

Recruitment information

In Tables 3 and 4, we have split workforce groups according to roles that do not require an assessment for applicants to progress to interview (primarily administrative, professional and technical (APT) roles) and those that do (primarily inspector and inspector manager roles).

Our recruitment approach uses blind sifting of applications. We exclude personal information, including ethnicity, from the recruitment information shared with the sifting panel.

Table 3: Roles not requiring assessment stage (primarily APT roles) during the financial year 2022–23

Category	% Application received	% Invited to interview	% Offer or reserve list
Gender: female	37	38	32
Gender: male	59	58	64
Gender: other/not declared	3	4	4
Ethnicity: Asian	23	15	12
Ethnicity: black	12	8	5
Ethnicity: mixed/other	6	4	2
Ethnicity: white	54	68	76
Ethnicity: not declared	5	5	4
Sexual orientation: heterosexual	80	78	78
Sexual orientation: LGB/other	11	13	13
Sexual orientation: not declared	9	9	9
Religious belief: Buddhist	1	[u]	[u]
Religious belief: Christian	28	26	26
Religious belief: Hindu	4	3	3
Religious belief: Jewish	1	1	[u]
Religious belief: Muslim	16	8	5
Religious belief: Sikh	2	1	[u]
Religious belief: other	1	1	[u]
Religious belief: no religion	39	50	55
Religious belief: not declared	9	9	7
Disability: disability declared	11	13	10
Disability: no disability	84	82	86
Disability: not declared	5	4	4
Applicant type: internal to Ofsted	7	20	33
Applicant type: wider Civil Service	20	20	15
Applicant type: external	74	60	52

^{Note: [u] = Percentages relating to fewer than 10 individuals have been suppressed.
Due to rounding, numbers in tables do not add up to 100.}

Table 4: Roles that require an assessment stage (primarily inspection and regulation roles) during the financial year 2022–23

Category	% Application received	% Invited to assessment	% Invited to interview	% Offer or reserve list
Gender: female	29	27	26	24
Gender: male	70	72	73	75
Gender: other/not declared	1	[u]	[u]	[u]
Ethnicity: Asian	7	5	6	4
Ethnicity: black	5	5	4	4
Ethnicity: mixed/other	3	3	2	[u]
Ethnicity: white	82	84	86	87
Ethnicity: not declared	2	2	2	[u]
Sexual orientation: heterosexual	89	89	88	88
Sexual orientation: LGB/other	6	6	6	5
Sexual orientation: not declared	5	5	6	7
Religious belief: Buddhist	0	[u]	[u]	[u]
Religious belief: Christian	51	51	49	50
Religious belief: Hindu	1	1	[u]	0
Religious belief: Jewish	1	[u]	[u]	[u]
Religious belief: Muslim	3	2	2	[u]
Religious belief: Sikh	1	1	[u]	[u]
Religious belief: other	1	[u]	[u]	[u]
Religious belief: no religion	35	38	40	40
Religious belief: not declared	6	6	6	6
Disability: declared disability	5	5	5	4
Disability: no disability	91	91	91	91
Disability: not declared	4	4	4	5

^{Note: [u] = Percentages relating to fewer than 10 individuals have been suppressed, except in the case of true 0. Due to rounding, numbers in tables do not add up to 100.}