On Tuesday, Full Fact highlighted a number of contradictory press reports on the proportion of children schools watchdog Ofsted estimated to have incorrectly identified as having Special Educational Needs (SEN).

A range of figures made it into print, all stemming from a passage in the report’s summary, which stated: “However, we also recognise that as many as half of all pupils identified for School Action would not be identified as having special educational needs if schools focused on improving teaching and learning for all, with individual goals for improvement.”

This was simultaneously interpreted in the media as applying to pupils in the ‘School Action’ category, pupils in both the ‘School Action’ and ‘School Action Plus’ categories.

Our earlier investigation sided with the first of these takes on the story, but it would appear that the confusion has not been helped by the messages sent out by Ofsted.

Reporters from the Daily Mail, Telegraph and Independent all told us they understood from Ofsted’s briefing that the estimate that as many as half of pupils were wrongly diagnosed could be applied to both School Action and School Action Plus pupils.

This in turn led them to report a figure of over 700,000 children being potentially misdiagnosed, rather than the 450,000 used by in other media outlets working on an estimate for School Action pupils only.

Yet the BBC informed us they were told specifically that the statement did not apply to School Action Plus, hence why they reported the lower figure.

Sadly Ofsted have been extremely unwilling to clear up this confusion, despite it contributing to vastly different figures being reported in the press.

We called them to try to establish what they had and hadn’t told the press at a briefing on Monday.

We asked whether there had been any suggestion in the briefing that the ‘as many as half’ statement applies to School Action Plus, as well as School Action.

“I don’t recall that being said and we’re staying with the wording in the report,” we were told.

“We’re not putting a precise figure on it. The journalists have interpreted that, and that’s fine.”

This raises a couple of important points.

Firstly Ofsted now appear to be saying that the statement applies to School Action pupils only, or at the very least unwilling to expand upon that statement, so are implicitly backing the lower figure.

Secondly, for the Ofsted to wash its hands of its responsibility for the contradictory information is not fine, despite what they may now say.

Ofsted need to clarify whether as many as half applied to School Action or both School Action Plus, as confusion over this issue has directly contributed to the divergent figures being reported.

The number of children misdiagnosed was the headline on almost every article covering the report. By allowing journalists to reach different conclusions as to what the report meant, Ofsted bears some of the responsibility for the inaccuracies.

If two sets of reporters are standing by their contradictory figures on the grounds of what they understood from the Ofsted briefing, it seems necessary for a clarification to be issued, as we have been asking since Tuesday.