An inspector speaks: the Annual Report of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools

In the United Kingdom one of the most important ways in which accountability relations in schools and between schools and outside bodies have been changed is through the introduction of a new inspection system. OFSTED inspection has largely replaced HMI and local authority inspection. In relation to this, the author examines three key inspection documents: the 1995 and 1996‐7 Chief Inspector's Annual Reports and the final Annual Report issued by HMI in 1992. She suggests that these documents are ideological constructions and therefore have to be read as such.