What is Ofsted looking for in the new Personal Development and Well-being section in the new inspection framework?

Yes Futures
Apr 13
5 min read

Updated: Apr 14

Updated April 2026 — this post has been revised to reflect Ofsted's new inspection framework, which came into effect in November 2025. Our original post covered the previous Education Inspection Framework. You can read the full new framework on the GOV.UK website

Ofsted's new inspection framework, in use since November 2025, brings some significant changes to how schools are evaluated — and Personal Development and Well-being remains one of the most important areas for schools to get right.

Here's what you need to know.

What's changed?

The biggest shift is that single-word overall grades are gone. Schools are no longer judged as Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement or Inadequate. Instead, inspectors produce a Report Card, grading each evaluation area separately on a five-point scale: Exceptional, Strong Standard, Expected Standard, Needs Attention, and Urgent Improvement.

Safeguarding is now assessed separately, on a simple "met" or "not met" basis. And Inclusion has become its own evaluation area — a recognition of how central it is to what good schools do.

Personal Development has been retitled Personal Development and Well-being, sitting alongside six other evaluation areas: Safeguarding, Inclusion, Curriculum and Teaching, Achievement, Attendance and Behaviour, and Leadership and Governance.

What are inspectors looking for in Personal Development and Well-being?

The core question inspectors are asking is whether your school supports young people to achieve, belong and thrive — not just academically, but as whole people.

The areas of personal development and well-being that inspectors give particular attention to include:

developing pupils' character, confidence and resilience
preparing pupils for the next stage of education, employment or training
promoting an inclusive environment where all pupils feel they belong
providing high-quality pastoral and well-being support
developing responsible, active citizens
ensuring breadth of opportunity — including extracurricular activities and careers guidance

Context matters. One of the clearest messages from Ofsted under the new framework is that inspection is not just about data — it's about understanding a school's situation. Inspectors are encouraged to consider your school's unique challenges and strengths, and to evaluate provision in light of them.

What's new to watch out for?

Oracy. This term came up consistently in Ofsted's own guidance and in presentations at the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) Annual Conference in March 2026, where Ofsted led a session. Inspectors are specifically looking at how well pupils can speak, articulate their ideas and engage verbally. If your school supports this — through debate, coaching, presentations, or structured discussion — it's worth making this visible and naming it as oracy.

Inclusion is woven through everything. Inclusion is no longer evaluated in isolation. It runs through the entire inspection, and inspectors are looking for evidence of it across all evaluation areas, including Personal Development and Well-being. Schools are expected to show that support is genuinely linked to outcomes — pastoral care alone is not enough; there should be evidence of academic progress and wider development alongside it.

“Inclusion is at the heart of Ofsted’s work. Achievement cannot be for some — it has to be for all.”— Secretary of State, ASCL Annual Conference, March 2026

The most important shift is that the inclusion agenda is now focused on academic and personal progress, not just pastoral support. A school can have a caring, nurturing culture and still fall short if it cannot demonstrate measurable outcomes for its most vulnerable students.

“A clear message from this year’s ASCL conference: seek help before outcomes are affected — not after. Early, targeted intervention with evidence of impact is exactly what inspectors want to see.”— Harry Paige, Director of Programmes, Yes Futures

The bar for the highest grades is high — but Personal Development is a bright spot. Of the early published report cards under the new framework, 44% of schools have achieved Strong or Exceptional in Personal Development and Well-being — making it one of the areas where schools are performing well. That's encouraging, and it also means there's a real opportunity for schools to demonstrate meaningful provision here.

Five practical steps to strengthen your Personal Development provision:

1. Define your provision by the outcomes you want, not the children it supports

This is a key principle from The Difference’s inclusion provision framework, shared at ASCL this year. Ask: what do we want young people to be able to do, feel and achieve as a result of this provision? Then work backwards to design it. The clearer your intended outcomes, the easier it is to evidence them to an inspector.

2. Make your provision visible — literally

Inspectors conduct learning walks and look carefully at what is displayed in classrooms and corridors. Physical evidence of student achievement, development journeys and progress matters. If your school delivers brilliant work on personal development, make sure it is visible in the environment.

3. Build an evidence base that connects to Ofsted’s language

Use the Report Card evaluation areas as a framework for how you collect and present evidence. Show reductions in suspensions and internal exclusions, improvements in attendance, increases in wellbeing metrics and academic progress for targeted groups. Inspectors need to see a clear, consistent story.

4. Name what you do as oracy, where it applies

Oracy featured consistently in Ofsted’s own guidance and in sessions at the ASCL Annual Conference in 2025. If your school — or a programme you work with — develops pupils’ verbal communication, confidence and ability to articulate their ideas, start calling it oracy. That language resonates with inspectors.

5. Prepare your narrative — inspectors want context, not just data

Data is a signpost, not a destination. Inspectors are trained to consider context. If your school faces particular challenges, prepare a clear, confident narrative that explains your situation and shows how your provision responds to it. Do not wait to be asked — be ready to tell your story.

What does good evidence look like?

Inspectors want to see:

a curriculum that goes beyond the academic, providing rich and planned opportunities for broader development
pupils who are confident, resilient and prepared for their futures
strong, visible pastoral support
genuine equality of opportunity — particularly for disadvantaged pupils
careers information and guidance of real quality
extracurricular activities that pupils actually take up

Physical evidence matters too: inspectors conduct learning walks and look at what is displayed in classrooms and corridors. Making pupil achievement and development visible in your school environment is a simple, practical step.

How Yes Futures can help you

Our programmes — Finding Futures (primary), Rising Futures (secondary) and Launching Futures (post-16) — are designed to develop exactly the qualities Ofsted are looking for: confidence, resilience, self-awareness, and the skills to succeed in education and beyond. In 2024-25, 96% of young people improved in a key skill area and 84% of young people told us they feel more prepared for the future after working with us.

Across 85+ partner schools, our programmes generate detailed impact reports tied to individual student progress — exactly the kind of documentation that supports a strong Personal Development and Wellbeing judgement. Each report maps outcomes to Ofsted’s evaluation areas, giving you clear, inspection-ready evidence.

“Yes Futures has helped me. I really liked seeing myself improve within school and outside.” — Year 8 Student, Herschel Grammar School

We are also happy to support schools in articulating how our work connects to their Personal Development and Wellbeing provision ahead of inspection — whether that is an executive summary for your senior leadership team, supporting documentation for governors, or guidance on how to present your provision to inspectors.

To find out more, please contact Harry Paige by emailing Harry.Paige@yesfutures.org.