Ofsted’s subject-focused curriculum unit has been “completely scrapped” and its subject leads are now mostly working on routine inspection, according to sources at the schools watchdog.
The unit was at the heart of Ofsted’s curriculum-focused approach to school inspections during the tenure of its former chief inspector, Amanda Spielman, with the recruitment of a series of subject expert HMIs to lead on research, reviews and training.
Tes understands that this team of subject leads is now working mostly on school inspection. One source from within the inspectorate said that, although subject leads are keeping their job titles, they are only working on their subject specialism on an “ad hoc basis”.
Curriculum unit ‘scrapped completely’
The curriculum unit has been “scrapped completely”, according to this current member of staff at Ofsted, who added that “the role of the subject lead has been sidelined”.
The changes come as the current Ofsted chief inspector Sir Martyn Oliver announced that subject deep dives in ungraded school inspections will be stopped from September.
Both changes appear to mark a departure from the emphasis on individual subject curricula within Ofsted.
Deep dives were introduced as part of the education inspection framework that was launched in 2019 by Ms Spielman. They have been used by inspectors to assess the intent, implementation and impact of the school curriculum, which is at the heart of the EIF. Ofsted has said they will still be used to feed into the quality of education judgements in graded inspections.
Commenting on the changing role of the subject leads, an Ofsted staff member, who has asked to remain anonymous, said that “the priority is now just getting inspections done, rather than the wider role of Ofsted to be a tool of improvement”.
“There’s less of an emphasis on curriculum. Under Amanda, there was a very clear idea of inspection as a lever for improvement, not just as a check. And it feels like that’s changing.”
Subject leads were first recruited in 2021 as part of Ofsted’s curriculum unit, along with a designated research team.
Their roles included training the workforce, working with schools and subject associations, and carrying out deep dives with the subject lens.
Change in subject lead roles received ‘badly’
Tes understands that, shortly before Christmas 2023, Ofsted announced internally that the curriculum unit wasn’t going to be a separate entity any more and would instead be part of a wider policy team.
In March, Ofsted informed subject leads via an online Teams call that they would be inspecting full-time as HMIs. This went down “badly”, the source said.
They said that arguments put forward in favour of the change included that subject leads were largely there to write subject reports, which have now been published. But the Ofsted staff member added that this “doesn’t really scratch the surface” of all the work carried out by subject lead HMIs.
Tes understands that the subject leads’ contracts are being changed as part of this process.
The Ofsted staff member said that there were “a few days available over the course of a year” for subject-focused work but added that it was “very ad hoc, if they think they might need something...but the curriculum unit project, that bigger idea, is not there”.
Another Ofsted staff source said the inspectorate had consulted with curriculum unit staff on moving from having their time split equally between curriculum leadership and school inspection to new roles with much less time for curriculum work - up to 45 days a year.
They told Tes that the changes “mark the end of the curriculum unit as a team with its own lead senior HMI” and added that most members of the unit are now either leaving or are “very, very unhappy”.
Heather Fearn had led the unit but moved from Ofsted, in September last year, before these changes, to take up a role as director of curriculum and assessment at Ark Schools.
Fears of impact on wider workforce
One of the sources Tes spoke to said that one of the reasons the move was made was potentially because of the pressure to increase the volume of inspections.
“The turnover [of inspectors] is very high. They want more inspections because of the pause that happened after Christmas, and they’re running out of road on their commitment to having inspected all schools by 2025.”
It could also affect the “quality of inspection if you haven’t got as much training for inspectors with that subject lens”, the source said.
They are also worried that there could be an impact on the wider workforce: “If someone wants to hear Ofsted’s view about a specific topic, it would often be the curriculum unit who would provide that.
“There would also be sector videos that would go out to schools explaining Ofsted views and helping to make things transparent,” the source added.
When asked to comment on the ending of the curriculum unit, Ofsted told Tes that its curriculum work “continues”.
A spokesperson said: “Our HMI curriculum and subject leads have always spent part of their time inspecting and part of their time on curriculum work. Now that the majority of our research reviews and subject reports have been released, that proportion of time spent has changed.
“HMI subject and curriculum leads will continue to train inspectors in curriculum and subject areas linked to our education inspection framework.”
Is curriculum focus fading?
The education inspection framework, introduced in 2019, places an increased emphasis on the school curriculum.
It also gives less weight to exam results and test scores than the previous framework, instead carrying out deep dives in particular subjects at primary and secondary.
Sir Martyn was one of a number of high-profile multi-academy trust chief executives who previously raised concerns that the framework disadvantaged poorer pupils.
Former chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw has also criticised Ofsted’s curriculum focus, expressing concerns that inspections are not sufficiently focused on the quality of teaching.
Speaking to delegates at the NAHT school leaders’ union conference this month, Sir Martyn said that feedback from small primary schools has led to the inspectorate dropping deep dives in ungraded inspections - a change that will affect 40 per cent of all school inspections.
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