# Ofsted Reports Data Scraper (`alkausari_mujahid/ofsted-reports-data-scraper`) Actor Scrape Ofsted full inspection reports for children's homes. Extracts 18 structured fields from PDFs — judgement ratings, provider details, inspector info, home capacity and type — filtered by date. Exports to MySQL and/or Apify dataset. - **URL**: https://apify.com/alkausari\_mujahid/ofsted-reports-data-scraper.md - **Developed by:** [Alkausari M](https://apify.com/alkausari_mujahid) (community) - **Categories:** Integrations, Automation, Other - **Stats:** 5 total users, 2 monthly users, 23.5% runs succeeded, NaN bookmarks - **User rating**: No ratings yet ## Pricing from $10.00 / 1,000 results This Actor is paid per event and usage. You are charged both the fixed price for specific events and for Apify platform usage. Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event ## What's an Apify Actor? Actors are a software tools running on the Apify platform, for all kinds of web data extraction and automation use cases. In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours, and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store. In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server. Actors are written with capital "A". ## How to integrate an Actor? If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects. You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready. The best way to integrate Actors is as follows. In JavaScript/TypeScript projects, use official [JavaScript/TypeScript client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js.md): ```bash npm install apify-client ``` In Python projects, use official [Python client library](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python.md): ```bash pip install apify-client ``` In shell scripts, use [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): ````bash # MacOS / Linux curl -fsSL https://apify.com/install-cli.sh | bash # Windows irm https://apify.com/install-cli.ps1 | iex ```bash In AI frameworks, you might use the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/mcp.md). If your project is in a different language, use the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md). For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below. For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt). # README ## Ofsted Children's Home Inspection Reports Scraper Extract structured data from Ofsted full inspection PDF reports for children's homes — including judgement ratings, provider details, inspector information, home capacity, and more — and export directly to your MySQL database or Apify dataset. --- ### 🔍 What This Actor Does This actor crawls the [Ofsted reports portal](https://reports.ofsted.gov.uk) and automatically: 1. Finds children's home providers matching your date filters 2. Identifies **Full Inspection** reports on each provider's page 3. Downloads and parses the inspection PDF 4. Extracts 18 structured fields from each report 5. Exports results to your **MySQL database** and/or **Apify dataset** It is designed for researchers, compliance teams, consultants, and data companies who need reliable, structured access to Ofsted inspection data at scale. --- ### 📦 Output Fields Each record contains the following fields: | Field | Description | |---|---| | `PDF URL` | Direct link to the source PDF on files.ofsted.gov.uk | | `Unique reference number` | Ofsted URN — unique identifier for the provider | | `Registered provider` | Legal name of the registered provider | | `Registered provider address` | Full registered address | | `Provision sub-type` | e.g. Children's home | | `Responsible individual` | Named responsible individual | | `Registered manager` | Name of the registered manager (or "Post vacant") | | `Inspection dates` | Dates the inspection took place | | `Inspection type` | e.g. Full inspection | | `Overall experiences and progress` | Judgement rating | | `Help and protection` | Judgement rating | | `Leadership and management` | Judgement rating | | `Date of last inspection` | Date of the previous inspection | | `Overall judgement at last inspection` | Previous overall judgement | | `Enforcement action since last inspection` | Any enforcement actions taken | | `Inspector` | Name of the inspecting officer | | `Role` | Inspector's role/title | | `Home Capacity` | Maximum number of children the home can accommodate | | `Home Type` | Specialism e.g. emotional and behavioural difficulties | #### Sample Output ```json [ { "PDF URL": "https://files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50287454", "Unique reference number": "2586943", "Registered provider": "Horizon Care And Education Group Ltd", "Registered provider address": "C/O DWF Company Secretarial Services Limited, 1 Scott Place 2 Hardman Street, Manchester M3 3AA", "Provision sub-type": "Children's home", "Responsible individual": "N/A", "Registered manager": "Post vacant", "Inspection dates": "12 and 13 August 2025", "Inspection type": "Full inspection", "Overall experiences and progress": "requires improvement to be good", "Help and protection": "requires improvement to be good", "Leadership and management": "requires improvement to be good", "Date of last inspection": "28 January 2025", "Overall judgement at last inspection": "good", "Enforcement action since last inspection": "None", "Inspector": "Julia Tompson", "Role": "Social Care Inspector", "Home Capacity": "4", "Home Type": "social and emotional difficulties" } ] ```` *** ### ⚙️ Input Configuration ```json { "start_urls": [ { "url": "https://reports.ofsted.gov.uk/search?q=&level_1_types=3&level_2_types%5B0%5D=11&status%5B0%5D=1&start=0&rows=10" } ], "latest_report_date_start": "2026-02-15", "latest_report_date_end": "2026-02-28", "max_depth": 3, "skip_db_export": false, "db_host": "your-db-host", "db_database": "your-database-name", "db_user": "your-db-user", "db_password": "your-db-password" } ``` #### Input Parameters | Parameter | Type | Required | Default | Description | |---|---|---|---|---| | `start_urls` | array | ✅ Yes | — | Ofsted search URL(s) to start crawling from. Can also be a direct PDF URL from `files.ofsted.gov.uk` | | `latest_report_date_start` | string | ✅ Yes | Today | Filter: start of inspection date range (`YYYY-MM-DD`) | | `latest_report_date_end` | string | ✅ Yes | Today | Filter: end of inspection date range (`YYYY-MM-DD`) | | `max_depth` | integer | No | `3` | Crawl depth: 1 = listing pages only, 2 = provider pages, 3 = full PDF extraction | | `skip_db_export` | boolean | No | `false` | Set to `true` to skip MySQL export and save to Apify dataset only | | `db_host` | string | Conditional | — | MySQL host (required if `skip_db_export` is `false`) | | `db_database` | string | Conditional | — | MySQL database name | | `db_user` | string | Conditional | — | MySQL username | | `db_password` | string | Conditional | — | MySQL password | *** ### 🚀 Key Features - **Date-filtered crawling** — target only reports published in your specified date range, no manual filtering required - **Full PDF parsing** — extracts all structured fields directly from the Ofsted PDF format, not just metadata - **Deduplication** — checks your existing MySQL records on startup and skips already-processed PDFs, making reruns safe and efficient - **Direct PDF support** — pass a `files.ofsted.gov.uk` URL directly as a start URL to process a single report - **MySQL integration** — inserts or updates records using `ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE`, so reruns never create duplicates - **Unsupported format handling** — PDFs that don't match the expected format are logged to a separate `ofsted_unsupported_reports` table for review - **Automatic retries** — failed requests are re-queued with up to 3 retry attempts and exponential backoff - **Dataset export** — all results are always pushed to the Apify dataset regardless of DB settings *** ### 🗄️ Database Setup If you are using MySQL export, the actor expects two tables. You can create them by uncommenting the relevant lines in the actor source before the first run: ```python ## Uncomment in main() to auto-create tables on first run: ## create_ofsted_reports_table(conn) ## create_unsupported_reports_table(conn) ``` **`ofsted_reports`** — primary output table, keyed on `pdf_url` **`ofsted_unsupported_reports`** — holds PDFs that could not be parsed (e.g. older format reports), keyed on `pdf_url` *** ### 💡 Tips & Best Practices **Getting the right start URL** Navigate to the [Ofsted search page](https://reports.ofsted.gov.uk/search), apply your filters (provider type, status, etc.), and copy the resulting URL. The actor will inject your date range parameters automatically. **Running on a schedule** Set `latest_report_date_start` and `latest_report_date_end` to a rolling window (e.g. the past 7 days) and schedule the actor weekly. The deduplication logic ensures previously processed PDFs are skipped automatically. **Skipping the database** Set `skip_db_export: true` to use the actor without any database — all data will be available in your Apify dataset and can be exported to JSON, CSV, or connected to other tools via the Apify platform. **Direct PDF processing** If you have a specific PDF URL (e.g. from a notification or email), you can pass it directly as a start URL: ```json { "start_urls": [{ "url": "https://files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50287454" }], "skip_db_export": true } ``` *** ### ⚠️ Limitations - Only processes **Full Inspection** reports for **children's homes** (Ofsted level 2 type 11). Other provision types or report formats are not currently supported. - PDF parsing relies on consistent Ofsted report formatting. Older or non-standard PDFs are captured in the unsupported reports table rather than discarded silently. - The actor respects a 2-second delay between requests to avoid overloading the Ofsted server. *** ### 📄 License This actor is provided for legitimate research, compliance monitoring, and data analysis use cases. All data is sourced from publicly available Ofsted reports. Users are responsible for ensuring their use complies with applicable terms of service and data protection regulations. # Actor input Schema ## `start_urls` (type: `array`): URLs to start with ## `latest_report_date_start` (type: `string`): Report Date Start ## `latest_report_date_end` (type: `string`): Report Date End ## `only_latest_inspection` (type: `boolean`): When enabled, only the most recent full inspection report is extracted per provider. Disable to extract all historical full inspection reports. ## `include_unsupported` (type: `boolean`): When enabled, PDFs that could not be parsed (no URN found) are still pushed to the dataset with whatever partial data was extracted. Useful for debugging or auditing unrecognised report formats. ## `max_depth` (type: `integer`): Depth to which to scrape to ## `skip_db_export` (type: `boolean`): When enabled, extracted data is pushed only to the Apify dataset (no MySQL insert). Use this when integrating with Make, Zapier, Google Sheets, etc. ## `db_host` (type: `string`): Host IP Address (required when 'Skip database export' is off) ## `db_database` (type: `string`): Database Name ## `db_user` (type: `string`): Database User ## `db_password` (type: `string`): Database Password ## Actor input object example ```json { "start_urls": [ { "url": "https://reports.ofsted.gov.uk/search?q=&location=&radius=&level_1_types=3&level_2_types%5B0%5D=11&latest_report_date_start=11-10-2025&latest_report_date_end=13-10-2025&status%5B0%5D=1&start=0&rows=10" } ], "only_latest_inspection": true, "include_unsupported": false, "max_depth": 3, "skip_db_export": true } ``` # Actor output Schema ## `results` (type: `string`): No description # API You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup. ## JavaScript example ```javascript import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client'; // Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token // Replace the '' with your token const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '', }); // Prepare Actor input const input = { "start_urls": [ { "url": "https://reports.ofsted.gov.uk/search?q=&location=&radius=&level_1_types=3&level_2_types%5B0%5D=11&latest_report_date_start=11-10-2025&latest_report_date_end=13-10-2025&status%5B0%5D=1&start=0&rows=10" } ] }; // Run the Actor and wait for it to finish const run = await client.actor("alkausari_mujahid/ofsted-reports-data-scraper").call(input); // Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any) console.log('Results from dataset'); console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`); const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems(); items.forEach((item) => { console.dir(item); }); // 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs ``` ## Python example ```python from apify_client import ApifyClient # Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token # Replace '' with your token. client = ApifyClient("") # Prepare the Actor input run_input = { "start_urls": [{ "url": "https://reports.ofsted.gov.uk/search?q=&location=&radius=&level_1_types=3&level_2_types%5B0%5D=11&latest_report_date_start=11-10-2025&latest_report_date_end=13-10-2025&status%5B0%5D=1&start=0&rows=10" }] } # Run the Actor and wait for it to finish run = client.actor("alkausari_mujahid/ofsted-reports-data-scraper").call(run_input=run_input) # Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any) print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"]) for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items(): print(item) # 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start ``` ## CLI example ```bash echo '{ "start_urls": [ { "url": "https://reports.ofsted.gov.uk/search?q=&location=&radius=&level_1_types=3&level_2_types%5B0%5D=11&latest_report_date_start=11-10-2025&latest_report_date_end=13-10-2025&status%5B0%5D=1&start=0&rows=10" } ] }' | apify call alkausari_mujahid/ofsted-reports-data-scraper --silent --output-dataset ``` ## MCP server setup ```json { "mcpServers": { "apify": { "command": "npx", "args": [ "mcp-remote", "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=alkausari_mujahid/ofsted-reports-data-scraper", "--header", "Authorization: Bearer " ] } } } ``` ## OpenAPI specification ```json { "openapi": "3.0.1", "info": { "title": "Ofsted Reports Data Scraper", "description": "Scrape Ofsted full inspection reports for children's homes. Extracts 18 structured fields from PDFs — judgement ratings, provider details, inspector info, home capacity and type — filtered by date. Exports to MySQL and/or Apify dataset.", "version": "0.0", "x-build-id": "LpKBAWMaxOhDMfAa5" }, "servers": [ { "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2" } ], "paths": { "/acts/alkausari_mujahid~ofsted-reports-data-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-alkausari_mujahid-ofsted-reports-data-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for its completion, and returns Actor's dataset items in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } }, "/acts/alkausari_mujahid~ofsted-reports-data-scraper/runs": { "post": { "operationId": "runs-sync-alkausari_mujahid-ofsted-reports-data-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK", "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema" } } } } } } }, "/acts/alkausari_mujahid~ofsted-reports-data-scraper/run-sync": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-alkausari_mujahid-ofsted-reports-data-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } } }, "components": { "schemas": { "inputSchema": { "type": "object", "required": [ "start_urls" ], "properties": { "start_urls": { "title": "Start URLs", "type": "array", "description": "URLs to start with", "items": { "type": "object", "required": [ "url" ], "properties": { "url": { "type": "string", "title": "URL of a web page", "format": "uri" } } } }, "latest_report_date_start": { "title": "Date Start", "type": "string", "description": "Report Date Start" }, "latest_report_date_end": { "title": "Date End", "type": "string", "description": "Report Date End" }, "only_latest_inspection": { "title": "Latest inspection report only", "type": "boolean", "description": "When enabled, only the most recent full inspection report is extracted per provider. Disable to extract all historical full inspection reports.", "default": true }, "include_unsupported": { "title": "Include unsupported reports in results", "type": "boolean", "description": "When enabled, PDFs that could not be parsed (no URN found) are still pushed to the dataset with whatever partial data was extracted. Useful for debugging or auditing unrecognised report formats.", "default": false }, "max_depth": { "title": "Maximum depth", "type": "integer", "description": "Depth to which to scrape to", "default": 3 }, "skip_db_export": { "title": "Skip database export", "type": "boolean", "description": "When enabled, extracted data is pushed only to the Apify dataset (no MySQL insert). Use this when integrating with Make, Zapier, Google Sheets, etc.", "default": true }, "db_host": { "title": "Host IP Address", "type": "string", "description": "Host IP Address (required when 'Skip database export' is off)" }, "db_database": { "title": "Database Name", "type": "string", "description": "Database Name" }, "db_user": { "title": "Database User", "type": "string", "description": "Database User" }, "db_password": { "title": "Database Password", "type": "string", "description": "Database Password" } } }, "runsResponseSchema": { "type": "object", "properties": { "data": { "type": "object", "properties": { "id": { "type": "string" }, "actId": { "type": "string" }, "userId": { "type": "string" }, "startedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "finishedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "status": { "type": "string", "example": "READY" }, "meta": { "type": "object", "properties": { "origin": { "type": "string", "example": "API" }, "userAgent": { "type": "string" } } }, "stats": { "type": "object", "properties": { "inputBodyLen": { "type": "integer", "example": 2000 }, "rebootCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "restartCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "resurrectCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "computeUnits": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "options": { "type": "object", "properties": { "build": { "type": "string", "example": "latest" }, "timeoutSecs": { "type": "integer", "example": 300 }, "memoryMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 1024 }, "diskMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 2048 } } }, "buildId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultKeyValueStoreId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultDatasetId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultRequestQueueId": { "type": "string" }, "buildNumber": { "type": "string", "example": "1.0.0" }, "containerUrl": { "type": "string" }, "usage": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 1 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "usageTotalUsd": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "usageUsd": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } } } } } } } } } ```