Education secretary Gillian Keegan has said she was “shocked” to hear of a school’s experience with Ofsted, adding that she would have “punched” the inspectors.
Speaking at the Association of School and College Leaders’ annual conference in Liverpool today, Ms Keegan talked about a school she had recently visited.
During a conversation on the main conference stage with incoming ASCL general secretary Pepe Di’Iasio, Ms Keegan said: “They told me how their Ofsted experience had gone and I was shocked. I was actually shocked.
“I thought, God, if I had met these people, I would probably have punched them. They were really rude.”
Her comments have been criticised as being “completely unacceptable” and “dangerous” by the trade union that represents Ofsted HMI.
The FDA’s national officer for Ofsted, Matt Newman, said: “Ofsted inspectors are hard-working, decent people who are passionate about what they do. They do not expect to be threatened just for doing their job - especially by the secretary of state for education.
“Millions of parents trust and rely on the work inspectors carry out, which helps to ensure schools are safe and delivering high-quality education. For a minister to suggest that it is acceptable to assault inspectors is irresponsible and dangerous. It will only serve to undermine the credibility of the inspection process.”
During the session at the ASCL conference, Ms Keegan added: “I mean you expect people to be rude to you when you’re a politician, you kind of sign up for that.
“But when you are trying to run a school and educate children and change lives, you don’t expect somebody to come in and not be respectful.”
The education secretary said that the biggest thing the government would be looking to change with Ofsted was its “culture”.
Ms Keegan made the comments after chief inspector Sir Martyn Oliver delivered a speech to the ASCL conference, launching Ofsted’s “Big Listen” initiative.
As part of this, Ofsted is seeking views on a proposal that the inspectorate could withhold issuing a judgement for three months on schools that are set to fail an inspection on safeguarding alone, following concerns raised over the death of headteacher Ruth Perry.
Inspectors and schools should act with ‘respect’
When asked directly about the education secretary’s comments, Sir Martyn said they were “referring to a previous period” of the inspectorate and that both inspectors and schools should act with “professionalism, courtesy, empathy and respect” during inspections.
Asked by Tes whether he expected the Big Listen to lead to either a new framework or any substantial changes to the existing education inspection framework, he said: “Well, look, I’m not naive. It’s a big politically momentous year, and I think the system wants stability.
“And I think my job is to try and create stability and not go through potential change, change and change again.
“So I think we need to see what happens and I need to stand ready,” he added.
The chief inspector also used his conference speech to announce that Ofsted would be introducing another change to its website “to show the full range of component grades at a glance, not just the overall effectiveness grade”.
However, Sir Martyn added that this “neither promises nor precludes further changes to our gradings”.
Not ‘enough SEND places or schools’ built
Ms Keegan was also asked during her chat with Mr Di’Iasio if she would have done anything differently in hindsight during her time as education secretary. In response, she said: “We haven’t built enough special educational needs places or schools.”
And on special educational needs and disability (SEND), the education secretary said “we haven’t yet got the right system”.
Ms Keegan admitted earlier this year that the country’s SEND system is not working well “for anybody”.
And she has previously described SEND provision as being in a “lose-lose-lose situation”.
Keegan’s comments ‘in very poor taste’
Responding to Ms Keegan’s comments on Ofsted, Unison’s head of education, Mike Short, said: “Clearly there’s much that can and should be improved in the way Ofsted inspections are carried out, but to suggest punching people is an appropriate reaction is not becoming of a government minister.
“Making light of violence when staff are increasingly likely to face assaults while doing their job in schools is in very poor taste. Ofsted inspectors are already dealing with greater hostility while they work. So much for showing respect.”
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