Ofsted have published the arrangements for taking action where an inspection is flawed.'Flawed inspections' , published in January 2014, sets out the procedures to be taken in the event of an inspection being so seriously flawed that it is deemed to be incomplete. The report states,

'Very occasionally Ofsted or an ISP (inspection service provider) will think it necessary to delay publication of a report to ensure full consideration of concerns raised by a provider or identified during our quality assurance process. Very rarely the process may suggest flaws in the inspection evidence base which will cause Ofsted to conclude that the inspection is incomplete. This will require Ofsted to take further action to complete the inspection and this could involve a further visit to the provider to gather more evidence to secure the evidence base. In such cases the inspection report will not be published until Ofsted is satisfied that the inspection is secure.'

'Examples of where an inspection may be considered to be flawed may include:

• where key judgements that might affect the overall outcome of the inspection are given orally by the lead inspector at final feedback to the provider or stated in the written report, and are not substantiated by evidence gathered and recorded by the inspection team
• where the conduct of the inspection is such that the evidence gathered and recorded cannot be relied upon to provide a fair and accurate view of the provider, in whole or in part
• where the inspector or inspection team has not gathered sufficient evidence or evidence of sufficient quality to allow it to obtain a fair and accurate view of the provider, in whole or in part.