Ofsted school inspectors 'not qualified At least five "lead inspectors" are carrying out inspections on behalf of Ofsted, the education watchdog, despite not holding qualified teacher status, which is a requirement for state school teachers in England. A leaked email suggested that Tribal, a company that carries out inspections for Ofsted, currently uses five lead inspectors who are not qualified teachers. The firm recently contacted all its inspectors asking to be informed of their qualifications. The leaked email, seen by the Times Educational Supplement, said: "No doubt you are aware of the recent media scrutiny into the background of inspectors. In the past this has not been an issue . . . [but] clearly this situation is changing and we need to have accurate records as to whether our inspectors have qualified teacher status. Russell Hobby, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers said: "I don't know how anyone who isn't qualified could provide a meaningful assessment of the quality of teaching." Ofsted inspectors were criticised last month when it was disclosed that former head teachers of failing schools had been recruited by the watchdog to inspect schools. A spokesman for Tribal said it was aware of the five lead inspectors without qualified teacher status, which she said represented less than half a per cent of the total freelance inspection pool. "We are awaiting Ofsted's clarification as to whether these inspectors can continue to inspect from Sept 1," the spokesman said.