🔎 UK Ofsted Provider Inspection Check

A per-identity check: submit identifiers, get one official answer each. Billed per completed official resolution — a not-found, ambiguous, or unavailable outcome is returned but never charged.

Output is one uk_ofsted_provider_answer row per result; billing is pay-per-event, the value event being one provider inspection check (a $0.02 start fee per run, then $0.05 per provider inspection check). Source: reports.ofsted.gov.uk.

No login, no API key and no CAPTCHA solving are involved: the source is read logged-out with an identified contact User-Agent.

📊 Sample Output

Real rows from run nH1hiBPm04zz0ZpjP on build 0.1.4 (2026-09-17), the same input as the Quick start below — every value is as the source published it (emails masked, long text shortened):

input	provider_name	overall_outcome	latest_inspection_date	registration_status	provider_url
100000	The Aldgate School	Outstanding	12 June 2024	Registered	https://reports.ofsted.gov.uk/provider/21/100000
140087	Leigh Westleigh Methodist Primary School	Outstanding	25 February 2025	Registered	https://reports.ofsted.gov.uk/provider/21/140087

The run finished with the status message: NORMAL: 2 billable answer(s), 0 definitive non-billable (not-found/ambiguous), 0 unavailable, 0 unparseable of 2 | provider-inspection-check billable=2 | provider-inspection-check charged=2

✅ What you get

Each row is flat JSON with these fields (from the dataset schema and the sample run; a field the source does not publish for a given row is null):

• record_type (string/null) — e.g. uk_ofsted_provider_answer
• input (string/null) — e.g. 100000
• urn (string/null) — e.g. 100000
• provider_name (string/null) — e.g. The Aldgate School
• provider_type (string/null) — null in every sample row
• local_authority (string/null) — null in every sample row
• age_range (string/null) — null in every sample row
• overall_outcome (string/null) — e.g. Outstanding
• latest_inspection_date (string/null) — e.g. 12 June 2024
• registration_status (string/null) — e.g. Registered
• provider_url (string/null) — e.g. https://reports.ofsted.gov.uk/provider/21/100000
• outcome (string/null) — e.g. answer
• outcome_reason (string/null) — null in every sample row
• source (string/null) — e.g. https://reports.ofsted.gov.uk
• query_mode — e.g. urn

What you get

One record per submitted identity. A resolved identity carries the official fields verbatim; fields the source withholds are honest null with a reason. Not-found, ambiguous, and service-unavailable outcomes are distinguished in the outcome field and are not billed. A run that gets no definitive result at all fails loud and charges nothing.

⚙️ Sample inputs

1. Quick start — the Store example (this is what the sample above came from)

{
  "urns": [
    "100000",
    "140087"
  ]
}

The sample run charged exactly: 1 × $0.02 apify-actor-start + 2 × $0.05 provider-inspection-check = $0.12 on the Free tier — every delivered row was billed.

2. A smaller, narrowed run

{
  "urns": [
    "100000",
    "140087"
  ]
}

A bounded run for checking the field shape before scheduling.

3. A full-size run

{
  "urns": [
    "100000",
    "140087"
  ]
}

The same input run on a schedule; each run is billed only for what it delivers.

🧾 JSON sample record

One real record from run nH1hiBPm04zz0ZpjP, exactly as it lands in the dataset (emails masked, long text shortened):

{
  "record_type": "uk_ofsted_provider_answer",
  "input": "100000",
  "urn": "100000",
  "provider_name": "The Aldgate School",
  "provider_type": null,
  "local_authority": null,
  "age_range": null,
  "overall_outcome": "Outstanding",
  "latest_inspection_date": "12 June 2024",
  "registration_status": "Registered",
  "provider_url": "https://reports.ofsted.gov.uk/provider/21/100000",
  "outcome": "answer",
  "outcome_reason": null,
  "source": "https://reports.ofsted.gov.uk",
  "query_mode": "urn"
}

🔧 How it works

Transport. Plain HTTPS from the Apify platform, no proxy. Every request carries an identified contact User-Agent.

Charging. Each provider inspection check is charged at the moment it is pushed (provider-inspection-check); a row that fails to charge is not delivered, so the dataset count always equals the charged count.

How it behaves

Each URN is resolved against the official Ofsted 'Find an inspection report' service: a search locates the provider's canonical page (robust across provider remits), which is then parsed for the published overall outcome, latest inspection date, provider type, local authority, and age range. 'Not yet inspected' is preserved as published and the actor never infers beyond the published outcome. An unknown URN is not-found and not billed. Check-vs-roster twin of the ofsted-school-register.

Billing

Event	FREE	BRONZE	SILVER	GOLD+
apify-actor-start (one-time actor start)	$0.02	$0.02	$0.02	$0.02
provider-inspection-check (per completed resolution)	$0.05	$0.045	$0.04	$0.0335

Charged once per completed official resolution. Not-found, ambiguous, and service-fault outcomes are emitted but never charged. Start fee $0.02.

Source

https://reports.ofsted.gov.uk

What is not done. No login, no cookie or CAPTCHA bypass, no private or personal-account data, no browser automation.

💰 Pricing example

Event	Free	Bronze	Silver	Gold
Actor Start (apify-actor-start)	$0.02	$0.02	$0.02	$0.02
Provider Inspection Check (provider-inspection-check)	$0.05	$0.04	$0.04	$0.03

Worked at the live Free-tier price:

• 2 provider inspection checks: $0.02 start + 2 × $0.05 = $0.12
• 25 provider inspection checks: $0.02 start + 25 × $0.05 = $1.27
• 100 provider inspection checks: $0.02 start + 100 × $0.05 = $5.02

A run that delivers zero rows charges the $0.02 start fee only. A BLOCKED run (source refused) fails loud and charges no value event. The start fee is charged once per GB of run memory; the default run memory is 1024 MB.

Yield on the sample run: NORMAL: 2 billable answer(s), 0 definitive non-billable (not-found/ambiguous), 0 unavailable, 0 unparseable of 2 | provider-inspection-check billable=2 | provider-inspection-check charged=2.

⚖️ Legal & ToS

This actor reads public, logged-out pages and feeds published by reports.ofsted.gov.uk. It collects only what the source publishes to any visitor, identifies itself with a contact User-Agent, and does not access accounts, private data or anything behind authentication. Use the output in line with the source's terms and your local law; the intended use is B2B research and monitoring.

❓ FAQ

Q: Do I need an API key or a login?
A: No. The source (reports.ofsted.gov.uk) is read logged-out; the input schema has no key field and the actor carries no secrets.

Q: Why did my run return 0 rows?
A: Read the run's status message. GENUINE_EMPTY means the source was read and had nothing in scope for your input; BLOCKED means the source refused and the run failed without billing a value event — retry later or narrow the input. A zero-row run bills the start fee only.

Q: How fresh is the data?
A: Every run reads the source live at run time; nothing is cached between runs. Put it on a schedule for a continuous feed.

Q: What formats can I export?
A: The dataset downloads as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML or RSS from the run's Dataset tab or the Apify API, and any run can push to a webhook or integration.

Q: How is this different from the other company registry checks actors?
A: Same output shape and billing model; this one covers reports.ofsted.gov.uk. The siblings under Related Actors cover the other sources or slices — run several on one schedule for a combined feed.

Q: Are there rate limits?
A: The actor paces itself against the source; there is no per-buyer limit beyond your Apify plan's concurrency.

🆘 Troubleshooting

• Run FAILED with BLOCKED → the source refused the request or changed its page shape → nothing was billed beyond the start fee; retry after a while, and if it persists open an Issue with the run id.
• Fewer rows than expected → the source had fewer items in scope → widen the input.
• Input validation error on start → a field is outside the schema's allowed values → start from the Quick start block and change one field at a time.
• Run TIMED-OUT → a very wide request on a slow day → raise the run timeout in Run options or narrow the input; what was delivered before the timeout is still in the dataset.

🔗 Related Actors

• UK Food Hygiene Prospect Finder — FSA Ratings — Prospecting lists of UK food businesses from the FSA's own public ratings API: rating, scores, address and authority contact per establishment
• UK Gambling Operator Licence Check — GC Register — UK Gambling Operator Licence Check — Gambling Commission register
• UK Gazette Insolvency Notice Watch — Insolvency notices published in The Gazette — the UK's official public record: notice code, category, the subject named in the notice, publication ti…
• Connecticut Business Status Check — Check Connecticut business identities against the official state registry (data.ct.gov) — one official answer per identifier: registry status, regist…
• 🏢 About NexGenData — NexGen Watch is NexGenData's fleet of 256 public monitoring and lookup actors built on official sources, pay-per-result. Browse the catalog at apify.com/nexgenwatch.

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