They carry out inspections and publish reports on a wide range of independent and education authority educational establishments, including pre-school centres, nursery, primary, secondary and special schools. Parents have a very important role in school inspections. Before each inspection, the inspection team writes to all parents with children at the school, letting them know that an inspection is taking place, and that they will be gathering views about the school by issuing a questionnaire. All parents are given an opportunity to complete a questionnaire. They are also given a telephone number to contact the HMI team if they wish to do so.
All feedback given by parents is considered very carefully.
The inspectors speak to the School Board Chair and where relevant, the Chairperson of the Parent Teacher Association or Parents Association. The published report on the school is sent to all parents. As well as reports on individual schools , HM Inspectors of Schools produce a range of national reports on specific topics. These have included reports on effective learning and teaching in each subject area in secondary schools and reports on specific aspects of education, for example, the quality of provision in the first two years of secondary schooling. Every three years, HMI publish a report giving an overview of standards and quality across all sectors of school education, based on the evidence derived from inspections.