The biggest education union has called on its leadership members to refuse to participate as Ofsted inspectors “until a full health and safety assessment of the inspection system” has been completed.
Members of the NEU teaching union today voted to back an urgent motion calling on the executive to work with other education unions to call for a freeze of all inspections until such an assessment has been carried out.
The vote comes after all school teacher and leader unions called on Ofsted to pause inspections so a review could be carried out following the death of headteacher Ruth Perry.
Commenting on the passing of the urgent motion, Dr Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the NEU, said that Ofsted ”must take responsibility for the breakdown in trust”.
Members at the NEU conference in Harrogate also voted to work with school leaders’ unions the Association of School and College Leaders and the NAHT to call on leaders to refuse to engage as inspectors.
NEU members also voted today for the union to initiate a campaign calling for the abolition of Ofsted.
There was a huge response from the school sector last month after Ms Perry’s family said she had taken her own life after an Ofsted inspection.
An inquest into her death has not yet taken place.
Ofsted school inspections ‘should be suspended’
Last week the NAHT wrote to chief inspector Amanda Spielman demanding the suspension of inspections “while steps are taken to address the risk to the mental health of school staff”.
The NAHT said the letter was the first step in pursuing judicial review proceedings and cited Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights, saying it sets obligations on public authorities to take reasonable steps where there is a real and immediate risk of a loss of life.
NEU members also voted today for conference to “empower members” to refuse to engage with Ofsted-related “drivers of workload and stress”.
Speaking at the NEU conference today, NAHT general secretary Paul Whiteman said that it was possible his union could have a similar Ofsted motion at its conference later this month.
He said that “the feeling of our school leaders is that this needs to be a watershed moment”, adding that “the pressure” and “fear” of the system was an “urgent” issue that needed to be addressed.
Headteacher and former NEU president Robin Bevan also said today that the change to Ofsted has to come from the Department for Education and has to be “political”.
“It has to be motivated by a really clear vision of what it is you want schools to be doing, how you then ensure schools are resourced to do that and how you determine whether you’re being successful in doing that,” he added.
He said that he thought education secretary Gillian Keegan “probably has little grasp of it as an issue at all”.
The NEU union yesterday voted for a re-ballot to extend the legal mandate for strike action until after Christmas.
Mr Whiteman said there was “an urgent need for fundamental changes to the inspection system, which places school staff under intolerable pressure, is often a poor measure of schools’ effectiveness, and does little to help them improve for the benefit of pupils”.
“Similar strength of feeling has been expressed by NAHT members on these issues and we are open to discussions with other unions,” he added.
Tom Middlehurst, curriculum, assessment and inspection specialist at the Association of School and College Leaders, said the union would “continue to work constructively with other organisations in pursuit of an inspection process that is less punitive, more reliable, and in no way harmful to the education system and those who work within it”.
Commenting on recent events, an Ofsted spokesperson said: “Inspections are first and foremost for children and their parents - looking in depth at the quality of education, behaviour and how well, and safely, schools are run.
“Our inspectors are all former or current school leaders who fully understand the pressures of the role. We always want inspections to be constructive and collaborative, and in the vast majority of cases school leaders agree that they are.”
