Annual Reviews: Labour Proposes Overhaul of Ofsted Inspection System
Shadow Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, has said Labour will introduce annual school safeguarding reviews, if they win the next general election.
In a speech, at the annual conference of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), she said the current Ofsted inspections aren’t suitable for identifying safeguarding concerns.
While Ofsted do investigate safeguarding measures during their inspections, Philipson said that these occur to infrequently to be effective. Addressing around 1000 teachers at the conference, she said:
“We have two forms of inspections. Too alike in some ways, too different in others.
“Full inspections, which come round rarely. Ungraded inspections, with the inspectors calling in for less than a day.
“It isn’t working. Problems fester, unnoticed, unchecked, uninspected.
“In just two days, inspectors are being asked to look at everything: at safeguarding, at sports lessons, at teacher development and trigonometry, at attendance and at attainment.
“And this means not only that mistakes are made, but things are missed.”
If elected, Labour plan to consult on a complete overhaul of the current Ofsted inspection system. They propose replacing the four grades (Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement, and Inadequate) that schools can achieve, with a ‘report card’ style system.
New Inspection Regime
The key aim of overhauling Ofsted would be to detach safeguarding from education inspections. In theory, this would provide the inspectorate more time to focus on each area.
The report card style system mentioned by Phillipson, would cover most of the same things that current Ofsted inspections do. Areas like, behaviour, management, and quality of education. However, these would have a different grading system, in the hope that it would provide more transparency for parents.
Commenting, Ms Philipson said:
“Parents and schools deserve better than a system that is high stakes for staff, but low information for parents,”
The ASCL welcomed the proposal to detach safeguarding from educational inspections. Geoff Barton, general secretary of the ASCL, said:
“An annual review of safeguarding is also an idea that we welcome.
“This is such a vital area that it makes sense to detach it from the normal cycle of educational inspections, and give schools, colleges and families an annual assurance that the correct processes and systems are in place over the welfare of pupils.
“Safeguarding is the number one priority of everyone in education and this proposed approach reflects that.”
On plans to reform Ofsted, he added: “The current system of Ofsted-graded judgments of schools and colleges is too blunt and reductive.
“There is so much more to a school or college than a single descriptor, and when that judgment is negative it is actually stigmatising and makes it more difficult to secure improvement. That is totally counterproductive and the system must change.
“A report card has the potential to provide a much fuller and fairer picture of schools and colleges while also being more informative for parents and carers.”
Although teachers welcomed the proposal, Conservative ministers were quick to criticise the plans.
Nick Gibb, minister for schools, said:
“Labour’s decision to go soft on education standards betrays our children.
“Labour are siding with the unions instead of parents, watering down the educational standards that families rely on.
“Keir Starmer and the Labour Party will do and say anything if the politics suit them even if it means our children are left behind.”