CREDIT: This story was first seen in TES
The inspectorate handed out the bonuses while planning for a budget cut of more than 38 per cent over the next three years, TES reports.
Ofsted plans to reduce its budget by more than £20m over the next three years, yet is still giving out tens of thousands of pounds in bonuses to top-ranking officials.
The inspectorate’s annual report and accounts for 2016-17 reveal that its core budget has been cut from £200m in 2010-11 to £145m this year. But it carried out only five per cent fewer inspections this year than in 2010-11.
The report states that, by the end of 2019-20, the Ofsted budget will have been reduced by more than 38%.
This would bring the budget down to £124m: £21m less than this year, and £76m less than in 2010-11.
But this year the watchdog gave out up to £110,000 in bonuses to senior members of staff. The largest of these – an undisclosed figure between £20,000 and £25,000 – was awarded to Matthew Coffey, Ofsted’s chief operating officer.
Sir Michael Wilshaw, who retired as chief inspector in December, was given a bonus of between £15,000 and £20,000.
And Sean Harford, national director of education, was awarded between £10,000 and £15,000.
The total amount of bonus payments – ranging between £75,000 and £110,000 – was divided between seven senior Ofsted officials.
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