Ofsted’s school-level inspections should end and the watchdog should be reformed to focus on the work of school groups of academy trusts and local councils, according to a report calling for radical reform.
The Beyond Ofsted inquiry says that, instead of being inspected by the watchdog, schools should carry out their own self-evaluation through a new system of school performance reviews (SPR), which would be validated by a school improvement partner (SIP).
The inquiry, which is chaired by former schools minister Lord Knight and sponsored by the NEU teaching union, also recommends an “immediate pause” to routine school inspections to “regain the trust of the profession”.
Under this proposal, parents and governing bodies would, however, have the right to call for a school-level inspection if concerns were raised.
The inquiry was launched earlier this year amid mounting concerns about the inspectorate.
Commenting on its findings published today, Lord Knight said: “The evidence is clear. Ofsted has lost the trust of the teaching profession, and increasingly of parents. There is now an opportunity for transformational change.
“Our recommendations are designed to restore trust and address the intensification of leader and teacher workload, while reforming a system which is ineffective in its role of school improvement.”
Beyond Ofsted inquiry: key findings
Here are six key recommendations from the report.
1. Stop Ofsted’s direct contact with individual schools
The report says the inquiry agrees “with the consensus that there should no longer be any single-phrase judgements” in the school inspection system.
The Association of School and College Leaders has called for single-word judgements to be dropped, and Labour has said it would consult on doing this if it is elected next year. The Confederation of School Trusts has also called for these judgements to be reviewed.
However, today’s report goes further by recommending removing Ofsted from direct contact with individual schools and reforming its function to look at the governance of groups of schools.
2. Introduce ‘self-performance reviews’ for schools
The inquiry advocates for schools to self-evaluate their progress and develop a “school performance review”, which would be gradeless.
Ofsted currently grades schools with four different judgements: “outstanding”, “good”, “requires improvement” and “inadequate”. However, the grading system has been criticised in the past for the pressure it puts on schools.
According to Beyond Ofsted, the content of the SPR would be based on a list of agreed at a national level, which schools can adapt to ensure it is “appropriate and suitable to local context and community”.
The purpose of the self-evaluation, the report adds, would be to “enhance the school’s capacity for improvement” and “to provide information to stakeholders”. It would not be used by the Department for Education or by Ofsted to hold schools accountable.
3. Heads to work with schools as ‘school improvement partners’
Beyond Ofsted also says the SPR would be validated by a school improvement partner. This would typically be someone experienced in school leadership and improvement, “including serving headteachers”.
The SIP would be “trained to support school leaders in evaluation and improvement”, would be “appointed by the school’s governing body”, and would “have an understanding of the school context”.
4. Ofsted should inspect school groups, such as MATs and councils
The report says school groups - including local authorities and single-academy trusts where appropriate - would be inspected by Ofsted on a regular cycle of every three to five years. The focus would be on their leadership and governance and capacity for accurate self-evaluation to address challenges and serve all learners’ needs.
These inspections would include examination of governance in terms of the delivery of school progress reviews and action plans.
Multi-academy trusts, federations or school governing boards would need to demonstrate that their quality assurance, resource management, risk management and school improvement capacity were all sufficient, drawing on the information from school action plans and performance reviews.
Inspections of school group governance would be published, but with no single-phrase judgement. If inspection found weakness in the quality and capacity for self-evaluation, it could recommend areas for improvement and further support.
MAT inspections in some form have been described as “inevitable” by education leaders, but concerns have also been raised about the “expertise” of Ofsted inspectors to inspect trusts.
Lord Knight previously told MPs that Ofsted inspectors ”do not have the expertise around how MATs themselves work”, adding: “There is a job of training to be done on that.”
5. New body to carry out safeguarding checks
Safeguarding checks would be carried out annually by a new, separate national body, the report recommends.
Beyond Ofsted says this “will eventually be the responsibility of local authorities”, but adds that “LA safeguarding competence has been allowed to erode due to lack of resourcing over the last decade” so councils are not yet ready for the responsibility.
“Full and proper attention should be paid to safeguarding and other legal frameworks, such as the Equalities Act”, the report continues, and failure to meet safeguarding requirements would require “immediate responses from the school leadership”, with a follow-up check before outcomes are published.
Labour has said it will introduce a new annual review of school safeguarding, as part of a wide-ranging series of Ofsted reforms.
6. Make Ofsted totally independent of government
The inquiry recommends that the inspectorate should be independent of government.
However, it says that Ofsted would still carry out thematic inspections to give feedback to the DfE on the impact of government policies.
“For example, it might report on what it has seen of the capacity for careers guidance in schools, or how broad and balanced school curriculums are,” the report says.
An Ofsted spokesperson said: “Children only get one chance at education, and inspection helps make sure that education standards are high for all children. The current inspection system was developed after extensive consultation with the schools sector and parents.
“We always want inspections to be a constructive experience for school staff. Our inspectors are all former or current school leaders and well understand the nature and pressures of the work. After every inspection we ask schools whether they believe the inspection will help them improve. Nine out of 10 say it will.”
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Ofsted has a crucial role in providing a regular, independent evaluation of every school, providing reassurance to parents that pupils are receiving the high quality education they deserve and are being kept safe.
”Thanks to the reforms introduced by this Government and the hard work of our teacher’s we are seeing education standards rise year on year, with 89 per cent of schools now rated Good or Outstanding - up from just 68 per cent in 2010.”
