Through its mission to become a ‘force for improvement,' Ofsted appears to be undergoing something of a regime change since the departure of former chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw, whose approach often tended more towards the ‘force' than the ‘improvement'.

His successor, Amanda Spielman, now six months into her tenure in the watchdog's top job, appears to favour a more collaborative approach to improvement in schools and children's services, insisting she does not want to ‘hit people over the head with sledgehammers' or, for that matter, ‘with inadequate judgement after inadequate judgement'.