§ Mr. Greenwayasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what information he has as to the average period which elapses between visits by Her Majesty's inspectors to voluntary colleges and the publication of their subsequent reports; what steps he is taking to reduce this period of time; and if he will make a statement.
§ Sir Keith JosephVisits by Her Majesty's inspectors to educational establishments, including the voluntary colleges, have a variety of purposes. The majority are informal visits to enable Her Majesty's inspectors to keep in touch with developments in the particular institution. Her Majesty's inspectors report orally to the staff concerned on what they find, but these visits do not lead to published reports. In the academic year 1984–85 all the voluntary colleges in England received at least two such visits and most were visited each term. Formal inspections leading to published Her Majesty's inspectors reports are less frequent. Since 1 January 1983 there have been four such reports on provision in voluntary colleges, in each case initial teacher training in a particular institution. The average time between inspection and publication has been nearly 10 months. It remains the aim of the Department and Her Majesty's Inspectorate, as set out in the 1983 policy statement "The Work of Her Majesty's Inspectorate in England and Wales", that reports be issued to individual institutions within six months of the inspection; ways of accelerating current procedures are being considered.