School inspections can resume as soon as the government clarifies its “minimum expectations” for lockdown learning, Ofsted’s chief inspector has said.

The watchdog is speaking with the Department for Education (DfE) about Ofsted’s role in assessing the quality of remote learning, Amanda Spielman revealed today.

Appearing on BBC Radio 4‘s Today programme, Ms Spielman was asked: “There are schools that are using home learning, online learning, quite extensively - obviously many in the private sector, but quite a few in the state sector as well. How much scrutiny is Ofsted doing of how schools are performing in that area?”

She said: “At this stage, routine inspections are suspended. And this is an area where at the moment there are no clear expectations for what schools ought to be providing.

Coronavirus: Ofsted ‘must focus on wellbeing’ after Covid closures

News: Ofsted ratings account for under 1% variance in GCSEs

Opinion: 5 major issues with Lord Adonis’ Twitter remarks

“Sometimes there is confusion about what Ofsted does - people think that we create the standards. We don’t, we inspect against the standards that government creates.

“So what I have been saying is that we do need some clarity about those minimum expectations. Parents need them, children need them, schools need them.

“And as soon as those are in place then it will be possible to start assessing whether schools are in fact doing what they should be doing.”

Asked if she could expand Ofsted’s role to assess “good” and “bad” examples of homeschooling, Ms Spielman said: “We are doing some survey work in the post-16 space already, and it’s one of the things I am talking to the Department for Education about.

“But yes, getting that sense at a higher level of what the range of possibilities are and using that to help inform the world about what can be done is clearly something that has value.”