Headteachers’ leaders have warned that new government powers to intervene in schools that get two consecutive Ofsted reports rated less than “good” will feel like a “sword of Damocles” over their heads.
The Department for Education (DfE) is pushing ahead with plans to issue academy orders to schools that receive two Ofsted inspection reports judging them to be less than “good”, despite concerns raised about the plan by the inspectorate itself.
The government has said that the powers will apply to schools that have been inspected after May 2021 and will initially focus on those in the country’s 55 education investment areas.
The DfE has said schools will be looked at on a case-by-case basis.
However, both main school leadership unions have said that this will provide little comfort to headteachers.
ASCL’s general secretary, Geoff Barton, said: “It comes to something when the inspectorate identifies the flaw in government changes to the inspection system but the government ploughs ahead regardless.
“Ofsted is right that two consecutive ‘requires improvement’ (RI) judgements do not tell you everything.
“Some of these schools may, in fact, be improving and, where this is the case, intervention could actually be counter-productive and damaging. This is precisely why we objected to this proposal in the consultation.
“The government’s answer is that it will look at schools on a case-by-case basis. But that is not much comfort if you are in scope and have no idea whether this new power will be used to intervene in your school.
“It will feel like the sword of Damocles is hanging over your head and that is deeply unsettling for school communities.”
Mr Barton said that including the Ofsted judgement of predecessor schools in the “coasting school” measure is unhelpful as it may lead to trusts being more reluctant to taken on schools with less than “good” judgements.
He also highlighted that consultation over the plans had received only 74 responses.
James Bowen, director of policy at the NAHT school leaders’ union, said: “As we’ve said all along, we think this is a bad policy that has the potential to do more harm than good. The fact that even Ofsted themselves are raising concerns about the proposals suggests that the government really needs to rethink this completely.
“We have a wide range of concerns about the impact of this change. Schools that receive a judgement that is less than ‘good’ need support, not threats and a ticking clock.
“The government’s suggestion that it will look at each school on a case-by-case basis offers little comfort in the context of its wider policy agenda.”
In Ofsted’s response to the government consultation, it raised concerns that some schools with consecutive “requires improvement” judgements may be improving under strong leadership and that intervention would be unnecessary and possibly damaging in those circumstances.
It also raised concerns that schools with one “RI” judgement may implement short-term fixes to avoid a second “RI” rather than focusing on sustainable improvement.
The DfE said yesterday that the new powers will mean schools with two or more consecutive Ofsted ratings below “good” may be matched with a strong multi-academy trust to support their improvement. The government laid out regulations in Parliament this week to enable this to happen from 1 September.
The government’s 55 education investment areas have been prioritised as the focus of new intervention powers “to help rapidly improve underperforming schools”.
Currently, only schools with “inadequate” Ofsted ratings are eligible for this type of intervention but 900 schools across the country with consecutive Ofsted ratings below “good” will now newly be eligible, the DfE said.
The government has said it will initially look to contact around a third of the eligible schools about potential intervention on the basis that they have a recent “RI” rating from 1 May 2021 or later.
Schools’ individual circumstances, including their existing capacity to improve, will be considered before intervention goes ahead.
