Compliance Essentials

Why You Need to Take This Seriously

Schools cannot ignore AI. To do so means potentially becoming non-compliant in future.

About six months ago, Ofsted released their positioning paper. In it, they make it clear that, whilst they won’t inspect AI providers, they will inspect how schools manage the tools they provide:

“Ofsted will not directly inspect the quality of AI tools. It is through their application that they affect areas of provision and outcomes such as safeguarding and the quality of education. Leaders, therefore, are responsible for ensuring that the use of AI does not have a detrimental effect on those outcomes, the quality of their provision or decisions they take.”

In the same way that the inspection of safeguarding was rightly beefed up in the wake of KCSIE ten years ago, inspectors will soon be assessing how well schools manage the risks and opportunities inherent in AI.

Inspection standards have not changed yet, but with a major update to KCSIE coming next year (much of this related to AI), schools must prepare, as Ofsted will take heed of the update.