Norfolk CC and the Isle of Wight today become the first authorities to be inspected by regulators Ofsted under new arrangements for supporting school improvement.

Inspectors will conduct five-day investigations to discover why the two authorities have such a disproportionate number of under-performing schools.

Ofsted will for the first time be operating under a new framework – which sees the watchdog returning to local education authority inspections (LEA) for the first time in a decade after they were replaced with joint area reviews in 2004/05.

However, the inspection regime will not be universal, and Ofsted will only investigate where inspections unearth clear concerns about the effectiveness of an authority's education functions or at the request of the secretary of state for education

According to a series of inspections carried out in Norfolk earlier in the year, Ofsted found the rate of progress was poor and behind counterparts in the rest of the country.  The proportion of good or better primary schools in Norfolk is in the bottom 10% of all local authorities and in the bottom 15% for good or better secondary schools

Schools inspections in the Isle of Wight raised serious concerns about the local authority's support and challenge. More than one in three of the island's schoolchildren go to a school that is not deemed good, while recent visits have shown that two thirds of all secondary schools are now judged inadequate.

HM Chief Inspector, Sir Michael Wilshaw, said: ‘In both cases, many school leaders have expressed the view that their local authority is not doing enough to challenge their institutions to improve.

Sir Michael stated his firm belief local authorities still have a duty to ensure that schools provide the best education for every child in their area.

‘The best local authorities understand the changing context, but are determined to play a part within it. However, there are inconsistencies across the country and not all authorities are taking up their role to act as a champion for educational excellence.

‘I am determined that Ofsted uses its unique position to close the inequality gap in education so that all children have access to a good school no matter where they live,' Sir Michael added.