Despite its position as a key mechanism for ensuring accountability to the government and to the public, and as a perceived tool to improve standards and outcomes, the inspection of education--and in particular of the post-compulsory sector--has been under-researched. This paper contributes to the field through an exploration of the twin justifications of inspection--accountability and improvement--by reporting on a small-scale research project into reactions to the experience of inspection and re-inspection within work-based learning. It recognises that definitions of what constitutes "improvement" are not fixed, that significant change, and its ownership, takes time, and that the movement from resistance through conformity to commitment is neither a smooth nor inevitable progression.