Careers Platform for Independent Schools
Chapter is written against the Independent School Standards, not Ofsted's state-funded toolkit - so your careers evidence reads against the standard your inspector actually uses, and the duties that don't apply to you aren't on the screen.
Independent schools have no statutory careers duty and no Baker Clause. What they do have is Part 1 paragraph 2(2)(e) of The Education (Independent School Standards) Regulations 2014: impartial careers guidance for every pupil of secondary age that enables informed choices about a broad range of options. ISI reports on it under Section 4. Chapter reads your evidence against that standard, limb by limb, and keeps the Gatsby Benchmarks as the quality framework you have chosen rather than one you are being held to.
Common challenges for independent schools - and how Chapter solves them
Careers software written for a framework you aren't inspected against
Chapter has an independent mode. Your evidence report is written against Part 1 paragraph 2(2)(e) and quotes the regulation verbatim. The Baker Clause ledger and the DfE enrichment framework - neither of which applies to you - are hidden rather than shown as gaps you can never close.
Proving impartiality when most of your pupils go to university
The standard has three limbs and a school can satisfy two while missing the first. Chapter scores them separately, so a programme that is excellent on breadth and reach but only ever puts pupils in front of universities shows up as exactly that, rather than disappearing into an overall percentage.
An employer programme that runs on parent and alumni goodwill
It works, until it narrows. Chapter tracks how many distinct organisations your pupils actually meet, not just how many encounters happened, so you can see the range contracting before an inspector does.
Destinations are what parents ask about first
Record leaver destinations once and Chapter turns them into the evidence for 'effective preparation for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of life in British society' - and into the numbers you need for the prospectus and the parents' evening.
Frequently asked questions
Do independent schools have to follow the Gatsby Benchmarks?
No. The DfE's statutory careers guidance applies to maintained schools, academies, free schools, pupil referral units and colleges - independent schools are not in its scope, and neither is the provider access duty known as the Baker Clause. In practice a great many independent schools use the Gatsby Benchmarks anyway, as the quality framework for a careers programme, and ISI inspection reports frequently describe schools working to them. Chapter tracks all eight either way; in independent mode it simply stops calling them compliance.
What are independent schools actually required to do on careers?
Part 1, paragraph 2(2)(e) of The Education (Independent School Standards) Regulations 2014 requires that pupils receiving secondary education have access to accurate, up-to-date careers guidance that is presented in an impartial manner, enables them to make informed choices about a broad range of career options, and helps to encourage them to fulfil their potential. It is a legal requirement - just a different one from the state-funded duty. ISI reports on it under Section 4: Pupils' social and economic wellbeing, and contribution to society.
We're inspected by Ofsted, not ISI. Does Chapter still work?
Yes, and it makes the distinction properly. ISI inspects schools in ISC-association membership; Ofsted inspects the non-association independent schools. Both judge you against the same Independent School Standards, using different handbooks. Chapter asks which inspector you have and cites the right document - what it never does is hand an independent school Ofsted's state-funded school inspection toolkit, which is the report a state secondary gets.
Does Chapter predict what we'd get at inspection?
No, and it would be dishonest to. ISI does not award grades - it reports the extent to which the Standards are met, applying a published proportionality principle. Chapter shows which parts of the careers standard your records currently answer and which are thin, states the bar it is using on every single row so you can argue with it, and lists in full the parts of Section 4 it cannot see. Careers is one bullet of one section of a whole-school framework, and the report says so on the page rather than in a footnote.
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