Local authority approaches to supporting school improvement: Methodology

Visits to local authorities took place between September and November 2024.

During the visits, inspection teams met with senior officers and central teams in local authorities to hear about local priorities and approaches to quality assurance and school improvement. HM Inspectors also met with focus groups of headteachers and school leaders, teachers, representatives of professional associations, elected members and chairs of Parent Councils.

At the planning stages of these inspections, HM Inspectors recognised the need for flexibility in our approach to meetings so that we could engage with a range of stakeholders who might not be able to travel to a central venue due to location and/or other commitments. We therefore held some meetings and focus groups using a hybrid approach, with some participants joining online and some in person.

Who we spoke to

As part of our approaches to gathering a range of evidence, we captured the views of headteachers and local authority staff who support improvement through a pre-inspection online questionnaire.

Questionnaire responses

We received responses from:

• 1,328 headteachers

• 485 local authority staff

The responses to these questionnaires can be found in the questionnaire analysis in the appendix

Methodology key facts graphic