The breakdown in school leaders’ confidence in the way schools are inspected has been further underlined today as Tes reveals nearly three-quarters of heads’ freedom of information requests to see Ofsted inspectors’ evidence about their school have been rejected by the watchdog over the past four years.
School leaders have made around 150 such FOI requests in recent years - but the vast majority of these bids have been refused by Ofsted.
Headteacher leaders warn that the number of schools using FOI legislation to access inspectors’ evidence base for their reports points to a “significant lack of confidence” in the watchdog.
Tes has obtained figures showing that, since 2019, schools have issued 148 FOI requests to Ofsted for inspectors’ notes but the inspectorate has provided them on just 20 occasions.
Ofsted have withheld the inspectors’ notes for 106 requests schools have made (71.6 per cent).
The inspectorate said it is “completely wrong to suggest” that they “do not disclose inspection evidence to schools” and that it only rejects requests if they are made before the inspection process has been completed and the report published or if any subsequent inspection activity is planned.
But one multi-academy trust CEO who has had an FOI rejected questioned “what the watchdog had to hide” and said the situation prevented schools from being able to build a case for complaints about an outcome.
They also told Tes that Ofsted’s criteria for refusing to provide evidence can mean that schools that receive a judgement of less than “good” and which face further monitoring inspections or quick return visits are likely to be rejected both before and after an inspection report is published.
And headteachers’ leader Geoff Barton warned that the watchdog should be as transparent as possible “to avoid looking like they have something to hide”.
However, in correspondence seen by Tes, Ofsted has told schools that publishing inspectors’ notes before a report is completed and published and subsequent visits held could harm its future inspection activity.
School leaders have also said the fact that heads feel the need to use the Freedom of Information Act demonstrates the lack of confidence schools have in Ofsted.
Mr Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “There will be various reasons why schools are seeking this information, but the fact that so many are going to such lengths to retrieve it suggests a significant lack of confidence in Ofsted.
“The over-simplified nature of many reports, the varying quality of inspection teams, the high-stakes overall graded judgements and the difficulty schools have in challenging these are all likely contributing to schools’ desire to find out as much information as possible.
“There remain many myths about exactly what Ofsted wants from schools. Ofsted should be looking to be as transparent as possible to help dispel these and avoid looking as if they have something to hide.”
‘I feel a total lack of trust in terms of the inspection process’
An Ofsted spokesperson said: “Where we have refused requests for an inspection evidence base, it has typically been when the request was made before the inspection report was published.
“The ICO [Information Commissioner’s Office] consistently supports our view that it is not appropriate to provide the evidence base at this point. However, in the vast majority of circumstances, we do disclose inspection evidence when it’s requested after a report has been published, and we have been doing so for some time.”
Ofsted added it publishes evidence requested “after any additional inspection activity is complete”.
Tes understands that this can include follow-up monitoring visits for schools rated as “requires improvement”.
FOI exemption rules allow organisations that carry out auditing of public bodies to withhold information if disclosing it might harm any activity related to such inspections.
In cases in which a school has made a request for evidence, forms and relevant notes completed during a particular inspection and Ofsted has refused, it has done so using an exemption covered by Section 33 (2) of the FOI Act.
Ofsted has said that when schools have appealed against this, the ICO has “not found against us in these circumstances”. It pointed to two cases from this year when the ICO said Ofsted was correct to rely on this section of the act and that it required no further steps to be taken.
‘Where’s the accountability for Ofsted?’
However, a MAT leader whose FOI request for inspector notes was rejected has questioned why Ofsted was relying on this exemption to withhold information from the schools they inspect.
They said: “I can’t see what’s to hide. You’ve been in our school, you’ve been watching our processes and making notes on how we could improve. Why wouldn’t you share those observations?
“The whole purpose of Ofsted is to drive improvement of schools, to work with school leaders to help them improve their schools. But school leaders are not allowed to see notes on observations on how things could be improved. It doesn’t make sense to me. Where’s the accountability for Ofsted?”
They added: “I always believed it was a transparent process that would be shared with school leaders if asked. Now I know that’s not the case, and I feel a total lack of trust in terms of the inspection process.”
‘Ofsted effectively marks its own homework’
They also said this had prevented them from pursuing a complaint at a time when there is widespread dissatisfaction with Ofsted’s complaints policy.
“I know if I could get hold of the inspectors’ notes it would prove that my complaint had to be upheld. As things stand, none of the points I made in my detailed complaint have been acknowledged. I have no indication that it has even been read. As far as I’m concerned, there is no complaints process.”
A breakdown of the 148 FOI requests from 2019 to 2022 provided by Ofsted to Tes in response to an FOI request shows that there were fewer submitted in 2020 and 2021 when routine inspection was on hold for some of these 12-month periods because of the Covid pandemic:
- In 2019, 52 FOI requests for Ofsted evidence were received from schools. Of these, 36 were refused and the information withheld; in eight cases, the information was disclosed; and eight requests were classified as “other” including where requests were withdrawn.
- In 2020, there were 24 requests: 18 were rejected; in three cases, information was provided; three were classified as “other”.
- In 2021, there were 13 requests: eight were rejected; in two cases, information was provided; three were classified as “other”.
- In 2022, there were 59 requests: 44 were rejected; in seven cases, information was provided; eight were classified as “other”.
In response to the criticisms an Ofsted spokesperson added: ”The number of requests for inspection evidence that we receive from schools is a tiny proportion of the overall number of inspections we carry out each year.
“It would also be completely wrong to suggest that we do not disclose inspection evidence to schools. We do provide this evidence once the report has been published and any additional inspection activity is complete.”
Calls for reform
James Bowen, assistant general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, said the FOI figures obtained by Tes demonstrated the need for inspection reform.
He said: “The fact that schools are submitting FOI requests to Ofsted is symptomatic of a wider problem with how inspections are conducted currently. Our members are concerned that, too often, inspectors overinterpret or give undue weight to individual conversations or pieces of evidence that don’t accurately reflect what is really happening in a school.
“Given how high-stakes inspection outcomes are, it is no wonder that school leaders want to fully understand all the evidence being used to arrive at a judgement. This data also reinforces the need for a completely new, independent complaints process. School leaders have very little confidence in the current complaints process whereby Ofsted effectively marks its own homework.”
Sir Jon Coles, chief executive of United Learning, the largest MAT in England, said he had a “bad experience” when he complained about inspections to Ofsted.
Speaking at a House of Lords committee hearing on secondary education this week, he said he had reported his concerns about the Ofsted complaints process to chief inspector Amanda Spielman after his experience had “felt like Ofsted closing ranks”.
Ms Spielman acknowledged in March this year that its complaints process is “not satisfying” schools and it is reviewing how it can address concerns about disputed grades.
And in a statement issued in April, she said the watchdog was currently piloting changes to its complaints process.
Ms Spielman said she hoped the new approach “will make it more responsive - so that issues can be addressed during the inspection rather than considered afterwards, which creates delay and frustration”.
