The national programme of four-yearly school inspections was introduced in 1993, based on common criteria set out in OFSTED's Handbook for the Inspection of Schools. Revised guidelines were introduced in February 1996, reflecting the lessons learned, and this book, originally published in 1996 articulates ideas that would have informed these revisions, including short essays by the Secretary of State for Education and Employment and the Education spokesmen of the Labour and Liberal Democrat parties.

Registered inspectors, teachers, researchers, parents, school governors, policy analysts and policy makers all offer their experience of the strengths, weaknesses and outcomes of the OFSTED inspection process.

The book is a companion to Improvement through Inspection? - Complementary Approaches to School Development by the same Editors, published and now reissued simultaneously.