ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on to the mixture of meanings associated with Lay Inspectors as 'insiders' and 'outsiders'. It presents some of the data bearing on selection and non-selection, primarily drawing on comment from Lay Inspectors themselves. A more viable set of interdependent proposals might be for Office for Standards in Education's (OFSTED) to limit the number of days per year that Lay Inspectors could spend on school inspections or limit the number of inspections per year. In the domain of equal opportunities there is clearly some bitterness amongst trained Lay Inspectors with little or no work, about the requirement that inspection teams should be gender balanced resulting often in the frequent use of a small number of female Lay Inspectors. The chapter suggests that some Registered Inspectors and Lay Inspectors who are fully employed feel strongly that a small number of Lay Inspectors is preferable, since these people through their experience, have become extremely knowledgeable and competent in the field.
