Ofsted

Helping Ofsted work more effectively

Key Deliverables

Vision
Digital Strategy
Digital Experience

The challenge

Ofsted had no consistent approach to evidence gathering and they were not making the best use of available technology during either the inspection process or in the storage and retrieval of data.

Their challenge was to modernise their systems so they could take advantage of 21st Century innovations. And the first phase of the solution was to implement electronic evidence gathering (EEG).

The work

Building on internal user research which identified opportunities to improve how evidence is captured, shared and distilled to make judgements, Rainmaker set about identifying user needs by shadowing inspectors in the field, talking to groups and individuals and assessing the technology landscape of the organisation.

Working collaboratively with Ofsted’s key stakeholders, the user research data allowed us to build a prototype solution for evidence gathering using Microsoft 365 and related products including PowerApps, Flow and Sharepoint. Within a few weeks, we were able to demonstrate the first iteration of the prototype to give inspectors a sense of how they might use it to gather, tag, sort and collate evidence to produce reports.

We were also able to identify and recommend software tools that could convert handwriting and audio to text, recognising that individual inspectors and the importance of not imposing a one-size-fits-all solution.

“Working collaboratively with Rainmaker and our users, leveraging innovations such as ExperienceLabs, has allowed us to develop the design and functionality at pace.”

Deborah Pollard

EEG Product Owner . Ofsted