Let’s start with a truth: a good QIP isn’t just a document you tidy up before Ofsted come knocking. It’s a live, working, collaborative blueprint for improvement, and if it isn’t, it should be.

One of the reasons our QIP helped contribute to a seamless Outstanding inspection was because it lived and breathedwithin our teams. It wasn’t shelved. It wasn’t overwritten. It did exactly what it said on the tin: drove improvement.

Here’s what I’ve learned about what makes a QIP actually useful (and how it should connect with your SAR).

The QIP and SAR: Two Halves of the Same Whole

The Self-Assessment Report is your honest diagnosis. The Quality Improvement Plan is the treatment.

A great QIP directly flows from the SAR. The areas for improvement identified in your self-assessment should be the starting point of your QIP actions—and not just at a headline level. Each priority should be:

• Clear and focused on impact

• Evidence-informed

• Trackable over time

Our SAR didn’t just point at gaps, it unpacked the root causes, and the QIP picked them up and carried them forward into tangible action. That meant every improvement area had a lineage: a why, a how, and a when.

Don’t Write a Wish List, Write a Plan

QIPs often become laundry lists of things we wish we had time to do. But real impact comes from choosing actions that matter, and committing to them properly.

We limited our KPIs to six headline priorities, and behind each of those sat:

• What needed to change

• What improvement would look like

• Milestone dates

• Action owners

• How progress would be tracked

This kept us focused. It gave staff clarity. And it gave leaders confidence that we could see improvements coming to life across the academic year.

Include the Right Level of Detail

The QIP doesn’t need to be a novel. But it does need:

• Specific actions ("Train staff on PREVENT" vs. "Improve safeguarding awareness")

• Named leads (not "team" or "staff")

• Timeframes and deadlines (that someone actually checks)

• Ongoing updates (monitoring should show movement, not just completion)

If you flick through our plan, you’ll see dates, initials, context, and clear impact updates. You can trace how ideas moved from intent to implementation. That’s what Ofsted are looking for: impact over time.

Align It With Everything

A good QIP should feel familiar when staff read it. It should match what’s being discussed in CPD. It should echo the themes from student voice data. It should link to the curriculum improvement priorities.

In our case, it even influenced how we planned team meetings, coaching conversations, and internal CPD days. We weren’t improving in silos. The QIP helped set the tone.

Build Accountability, Not Blame

We assigned action owners not to add pressure, but to bring focus. That meant they had the space and support to own that improvement area, to try things, evaluate them, and report on progress.

If something wasn’t working, we didn’t rewrite the QIP. We reviewed the approach. That flexibility kept the momentum going without becoming performative.

Final Thought

A strong QIP isn’t something you write for inspection. It’s something you write for your learners, your teams, and your future selves.

If your SAR is your mirror, your QIP is your map.

Craft it with care. Keep it live. And make sure it’s used.