A school leaders’ union has urged Ofsted and the Department for Education to consult on the removal of single-word judgements “as soon as possible”.
The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) called for a consultation on the removal of both the overall effectiveness judgement and the four separate judgements as it responded to proposed changes to Ofsted’s post-inspection arrangements and complaints handling.
In response to the Ofsted consultation, which is set to close on 15 September, ASCL also recommended that Ofsted commits to responding to every complaint a provider raises point by point, rather than amalgamating responses together.
The watchdog launched the consultation on changes it was planning to make to the way it handles complaints in June.
Under the changes being proposed, Ofsted’s three-step complaints process would be replaced by a system that would allow schools to complain formally and to an independent adjudicator more quickly.
And any schools that had any immediate concerns about an inspection would also be given a new opportunity to raise concerns with a separate Ofsted HMI the day after an inspection.
While ASCL said it strongly agreed with all the proposals set out in the consultation, it said that “as these proposals are unlikely to be confirmed or implemented in the autumn term, it is important that Ofsted takes a measured approach to complaints during this time, and tries to fulfil the spirit of these proposals until they are confirmed”.
‘Extremely convoluted’
Tom Middlehurst, inspection specialist at ASCL, said: “The current complaints system is extremely convoluted, and school and college leaders tell us that they find it very difficult to successfully challenge an inspection outcome.”
Mr Middlehurst said that the proposals set out in the current consultation would go “some way towards supporting leaders during and after an inspection”.
However, while Mr Middlehurst said the changes were welcome, he said they represented “only modest improvements to an inspection system that all too often produces judgements that are unreliable and unfair”.
“The single biggest positive change that could be made is the removal of the overall effectiveness grading, which is often the largest point of contention in any complaint. These judgements can be reductionist, misleading and damaging to the mental health and wellbeing of staff.
“Switching to narrative judgements, which identify a school or college’s strengths and weaknesses, would build much-needed resilience into the inspection system and be far more informative for parents and other stakeholders. Ofsted and the Department for Education must consult on this change as soon as possible.”
Ofsted and the DfE are also consulting on the proposal for direct escalation to the Independent Complaints Adjudication Service for Ofsted (ICASO) and adding a periodic review of closed complaints using external representatives from the sectors it inspects.
ASCL said that the union welcomed the suggestion of periodical reviews of this process, and asked to be included in those reviews as a key stakeholder.
In January this year, ASCL called for Ofsted’s overall graded judgements of schools to be scrapped and said schools should be told what year they are due to be inspected in, warning of a “punitive inspection” system.
