Ofsted is keen to recruit more inspectors with “senior levels of trust experience”, its chief inspector said today.
Speaking at the Confederation of School Trusts’ (CST) conference this afternoon, Amanda Spielman said the organisation was recruiting inspectors with trust experience at the moment and that she was keen to “build on this”.
She said there had previously been a perception that Ofsted “didn’t understand” trust structures, but that this had changed over the past few years.
“Indeed, the inspectors we now recruit and our serving Ofsted inspectors have often worked in a trust structure. I’m keen to build on this and to recruit more [Ofsted inspectors] with senior levels of trust experience,” she said.
And she added: “Our summary evaluations of trusts are currently carried out only by HMI [Her Majesty’s inspectors], but we want to expand this over time to trust experienced [Ofsted inspectors].”
Ofsted currently does not inspect multi-academy trusts but it is making the case to do so as part of the government’s plans to introduce new regulations for the sector.
Ofsted: ‘There is a clear place for academy trust inspection’
And Ms Spielman stressed this again today, telling conference delegates: “Many of you agree that the current accountability arrangements for trusts are not yet in the best possible shape.”
She added: “It is my view that there is a clear place for trust inspection in a new system.”
Earlier this year, Ms Spielman said that inspections will play an important part in the government deciding whether academy trusts are failing to meet national standards.
She said at the Schools and Academies Show in April that it is right that MATs should be held to account for the standards of education they provide, given that some receive hundreds of millions of pounds of public money.
Ofsted currently carries out summary evaluations of MATs, producing findings drawn from a batch of inspection reports from a group of schools run by the same trust. However, these evaluations do not include a trust-level inspection grade.
Ms Spielman drew laughter from her audience of academy leaders today when she said: “Most recently, we evaluated the Birmingham Diocesan MAT. We have several more lined up over the coming months. So we really look forward to visiting some of you soon.”
During her speech today, she also stressed that it is school leaders, rather than Ofsted, who are responsible for school improvement.
Ms Spielman said she had heard criticism of Ofsted because teachers felt it had not improved their school.
She added: “But as you all know, school improvement has not been part of Ofsted’s remit for more than a decade; that responsibility sits with you and, to some extent, with other parts of government.
“A clear policy distinction has been drawn between inspection and improvement.”
However, she added that Ofsted had worked to be a “force for improvement” in recent years.
Ms Spielman also told the conference that school leaders should not “be afraid to make curriculum changes because you’re concerned that inspectors won’t understand or might take a dim view”.
“Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, I encourage you to continue to work to understand your pupils’ needs, and to make the curriculum changes that they need with confidence,” she added.
She said that “significant challenges” remained when it came to helping pupils catch up from lost learning during the pandemic.
“At every stage, children have lower and more variable starting points. Gaps have widened; younger children are often behind in language, communication and social skills,” she said.
“We hear that more effort is having to go into teaching older children behaviour and routines and there is more work for you in managing behaviour.
“There’s still too much persistent absence and many vital SEND, mental health and other support services have yet to return even to their creaking pre-pandemic levels while needs continue to be exceptionally high.”
