When Ofsted introduced its new Further Education and Skills Inspection Toolkit in November 2025, providers across the sector felt the shift immediately.
The move to a ‘Secure Fit’ model – requiring providers to ‘tick every box’ in order to achieve to a certain standard – raised the bar. The adjustments from Ofsted’s previous approach also created uncertainty for providers. What would actually be different during inspection?
For many providers, the challenge presented by Ofsted’s updated FES Inspection Toolkit is not quality, but visibility.
When ANS Academy were selected as one of the first providers to be inspected under the new framework, their confidence in their provision wasn’t in question – but the expectations around evidence were.
What would inspectors now probe more deeply?
How had the standards truly changed?
What evidence needed to be surfaced differently than before?
ANS Academy became the first provider to achieve ‘Strong’ standard in every category under the new framework: not because they changed how they delivered, but because they could clearly evidence how they already worked.
|
Key Outcomes
|
ANS Academy delivers technology-focused apprenticeships designed to develop the next generation of digital and cloud professionals. As part of ANS Group, the Academy blends commercial expertise with structured learning; giving apprentices real-world exposure alongside formal development.
They work closely with employers to align programmes to evolving industry demand while maintaining a strong focus on learner experience, inclusion, and long-term progression.
Their approach combines:
Structured quality assurance,
Truly embedding the learner voice, and
Strong governance and leadership oversight
The result is apprenticeship provision where learners are supported not just to achieve academically, but to grow professionally and personally.
Ofsted’s 2025 Further Education and Skills Inspection Toolkit (FESIT) introduced a greater emphasis on providers’ demonstrable impact, higher expectations around consistency, a significant increase in the standalone scrutiny of inclusion, and a stronger focus on leadership visibility and improvement cycles.
The difference between achieving ‘Expected’ and ‘Strong’ standard often comes down to:
How clearly impact can be evidenced
How consistently quality is applied
How quickly and confidently proof can be surfaced
For many providers, this creates pressure at the point of inspection: a scramble to gather, validate, and present evidence.
With Bud as their foundational platform, ANS Academy started from a different position.
Inspection readiness wasn’t something they prepared for, it was already embedded in how they operated.
Before implementing Bud, ANS Academy relied on a combination of spreadsheets, documents, and manual processes to track learner progress and performance. This created friction.
| Before Bud: | With Bud: |
|
|
This shift meant that when Ofsted requested data (such as completion rates by demographics, destination data, KPI tracking, quality improvement plans, and intervention evidence), ANS Academy could provide it immediately, and with confidence.
With Bud as their central system, ANS Academy didn’t need to undertake a last-minute effort to gather inspection evidence when they received the call from Ofsted.
Instead, inspection readiness has become a by-product of their day-to-day operations.
Because learner journeys, progress reviews, support plans and communications are all tracked centrally within Bud, inspectors were able to validate both operational performance and organisational culture quickly and confidently.
Ofsted’s updated framework places significant weight on inclusion – not just as a principle, but as something providers must evidence clearly.
Bud enables this by making inclusion operational:
Diagnostic assessment records captured and stored centrally
Structured support plans linked directly to learner journeys
Interventions documented and tracked over time
Communications logs providing full context
Regular review cycles embedded into delivery
Real-time visibility of learner engagement
This allows providers to clearly demonstrate where support needs were identified, what action was taken, how it was reviewed, and what impact it had.
Ofsted described ANS Academy as delivering “a platinum standard of organisational values”, and highlighted that “apprentices are at the heart of everything they do.”
These weren’t abstract statements – they were backed by operational evidence:
96% attendance
99% engagement
95% of learners feel their voice is heard
100% of learners feel treated fairly
Because Bud centralises both qualitative and quantitative data, inspectors could quickly validate these outcomes against real, structured evidence.
ANS Academy’s remarkable outcome wasn’t driven by last-minute preparation of inspection-specific processes. It was the result of consistent, structured, and high-quality delivery powered by a platform designed for the realities of funded learning.
With Bud:
Evidence is captured as part of delivery – not added later
Data is connected, not fragmented
Visibility is real-time, not retrospective
Inspection readiness isn’t a moment in time, but how providers using Bud operate every day.
Book a discovery call to explore how Bud can help you build evidence, visibility, and confidence into your everyday delivery.
Get ready for inspection with our cheat sheet or check your own Ofsted inspection readiness with our checklist.