I thought it was a bold move - being as it was entirely contrary to government thinking on the policy. I refer to the decision by Ofsted to scrap outsourced school inspections and bring inspections in-house.

Now, as TES revealed last week, it has coincided with a huge reduction in the number of complaints by schools over inspections - from 534 to 209 in two years. 

Sean Harford, Ofsted’s national director of education, put this down to the more rigorous training of inspectors that the education standards watchdog can guarantee.

I did wonder at the time whether Ofsted would get away with making the change - as it contradicted the conventional wisdom in Conservative circles that public services are best delivered privately. 

In particular, it went against the grain of what was happening in schools - where, for a long time, ministers wanted to insist that every school should adhere to the academies framework. 

My own feelings can roughly be summed up by saying “go with what works” - ie, some schools can deliver better results through the academy structure, but it is stupid to try to argue that it is impossible to have good schools maintained by a local authority.

The argument on inspections would appear to go further than that. The service has manifestly been improved now the private sector has been entirely written out of the script.

Grammar school gripes

Full marks to Ofsted then for going ahead with this reform. It makes you wonder whether there are any other services could be better delivered if returned to the public fold. Do I hear a commuter saying “hear, hear!”?

So we have moved from the “big society” to the “shared society”. 

The “big society”, of course, was a euphemism for cuts in public services - which would then be provided by volunteers. If the “shared society” of prime minister Theresa May is to be different, then it is to be welcomed.

I have my doubts, though, as the size of the cuts hitting schools this year would seem to pre-empt any move towards giving education the kind of funding it needs to deliver caring, sharing services adequately.

So far, the only clue as to extra funding is that it will be used to help train secondary school teachers in mental health awareness - a rather modest if welcome initiative.

We are promised, though, that there will be further pronouncements in the coming months, which I for one will await with interest.

Let us hope, though, that these announcements are not just simply to allow the prime minister to deliver on her declared aim of bringing back grammar schools - which incidentally was criticised by Ofsted’s new chief inspector Amanda Spielman in her first interview (article free for subscribers) after succeeding Sir Michael Wilshaw. 

It reminds me a bit of Oscar Wilde. I paraphrase: to lose (the support of) one chief inspector may be careless. But two?

More funding is essential

The grammar school plan was one of the initiatives mentioned by education secretary Justine Greening in her interview with Andrew Marr on his Sunday breakfast show last weekend,

She said one of the aims of the “shared society” was to create more good schools but I tend to agree with Mr Marr that no government has ever come to power pledging to do the opposite (even though the effects of their actions might possibly have led to that). 

I am sure, in his hearts of hearts, David Cameron wanted to create more good schools through his “big society” initiative. 

John Patten and Ruth Kelly, whom I single out in my book, The Thirty Years War, as being the two worst education secretaries of the past thirty years, were doubtlessly committed to creating more good schools, too.

No, it will need more than just a spoken desire to create more good schools to turn things around in the areas where that is necessary. Actions speak louder than words, and right now actions will mean funding, too.

Meanwhile, let us comfort ourselves with another comment from Ms Spielman’s first interview - that ministers may have less time for education as a result of Brexit. No new initiatives? Yippee. Let schools get on with providing education.

Richard Garner was education editor of The Independent for 12 years, and before that news editor of the TES. He has been writing about education for more than three decades. To read more columns by Richard, view his back-catalogue

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