Plans for Ofsted to scrutinise inclusion risk schools being blamed for a crisis that is “way beyond their control”, leaders are warning.

The concern follows an announcement by the watchdog that it is producing an inclusion “criterion” against which to measure schools from September 2025, as part of major reforms set out last week.

While the move was welcomed by many as long overdue, there are fears that it will place new demands on schools before reforms to exams, the curriculum, performance league tables or special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) funding have been made.

The concern comes as a Tes analysis of area-wide Ofsted SEND inspections illustrates how the crisis extends far beyond the school gate - with wide-ranging problems encompassing education, health and care plans (EHCP), pressure on special school places and long waits for support services.

And such problems could be left to escalate after the watchdog decided to pause the start of monitoring visits to areas with systemic failings, SEND experts have told Tes.

Accountability system ‘penalises most inclusive schools’

James Bowen, assistant general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, said there was a strong sense that “the current accountability system penalises the most inclusive schools”.

While this must be addressed, “it would be a mistake to think that greater accountability is the way to solve the current crisis”, he said. “You cannot inspect your way out of the SEND crisis.”

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Ofsted’s attempts to measure inclusion would not address factors driving the SEND crisis such as the lack of access to specialist services, school funding pressures and local authority capacity, he warned.

There is a “danger” that “if we rush ahead with inclusion accountability reforms without addressing the underlying problems then we could see schools being criticised, when many of the issues go way beyond their control”, Mr Bowen said.

“Accountability cannot sit on the shoulders of schools alone,” he added.

Measure ‘must be supported by wider reform’

Pepe Di’lasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, stressed that Ofsted’s inclusion measure must be coordinated with the government’s ongoing curriculum and assessment review.

While welcoming the move in principle, he said: “An accountability measure has to be supported by wider reform to improve and properly resource the SEND system, which is presently at a point of near collapse.”

However, the curriculum review is not set to report back until next autumn - after the Ofsted measure has been launched.

But schools’ efforts to boost inclusion could be hampered without assessment reforms, Seamus Murphy, CEO of Turner Schools, told Tes.

“Schools cannot be truly inclusive if they are not allowed the flexibility to ensure the curriculum meets pupils’ needs,” he said.

Creating an inclusion standard for inspections “will only be tinkering around the edges if we still have a system where a third of young pupils fail to get a set of qualifications that allow them to go on to a meaningful level 3 qualification”, he added.

Although overall school inspection grades are being ditched, sub-judgements - such as quality of education and leadership and management - will still be graded when inspections resume in just over a week.

And it is possible that report cards could still give schools a grade or rating in particular areas.

How could inclusion be measured?

Policy experts have warned against applying this to inclusion. Louis Hodge, associate director at the Education Policy Institute (EPI), said: “Inclusion is a nuanced issue, not always reflected well in data.”

For example, having fewer EHCPs could mean a school is less inclusive - but could also reflect a setting where “needs are met and so escalation to EHCP is not often required”.

The EPI has launched a data tool for multi-academy trusts and local authorities to assess inclusiveness. These include metrics on whether school admissions reflect the local pupil population. Ofsted could consider applicants as well as those offered places, Mr Hodge said.

The tool also looks at managed moves, off-rolling and the attainment and progress of disadvantaged and low prior-attaining pupils.

Matthew Shanks, CEO of Education South West, said that Ofsted’s focus on inclusion should also actively include feedback from parents, particularly those who might fear speaking out due to negative past experiences.

The new focus should encourage “genuine, holistic support for vulnerable students” rather than “incentivising superficial compliance”, he added.

Another area of concern is who decides how to define inclusion, and how Ofsted’s new standard will marry up with other aspects of education policy.

Last week, Tes reported on warnings from the NAHT that, if Ofsted leads on the consultation of the new framework and report card, schools might not be able to feed into the plans until very late in the process.

Jonny Uttley, CEO of The Education Alliance Multi-Academy Trust, said it should be the Department for Education, not Ofsted, that decides what inclusive education should look like.

The DfE “should be designing what performance measures support this inclusive approach and what is included in the report card, and then Ofsted’s role should be to find a way of inspecting against this”, he said.

‘Schools could game the system’

There is also concern that assessing inclusion could lead to some schools gaming the system.

For example, Mr Murphy said that measuring the number of children with SEND could create an incentive for schools to classify more children as having SEND purely to hit this metric.

Ofsted would need to look beyond the figures, he added; for example, whether a school with high numbers of pupils with SEND due to having a specialist unit was inclusive for pupils in its mainstream classes.

Lynsey Holzer, CEO of Active Learning Trust in the East of England, was concerned that schools could be incentivised “to not admit certain pupils” to “excel” at measures, such as the performance of pupils with SEND.

“We know that this practice happened in schools when off-rolling became an issue,” she added.

SEND ‘accountability gap’

Although there are major concerns about how the inclusion standard will work in practice, it is seen as potentially addressing what Mr Uttley described as a “SEND accountability gap”.

Headteachers and council leaders say the current Ofsted system of school inspections and area-wide SEND inspections fail to hold to account schools or trusts that are not inclusive.

A senior director in a local council told Tes that the watchdog had rated schools with very high exclusion rates as “good” and “outstanding” because “they are making judgements based on that cohort of children who are in the school”.

They added: “Then they are coming to me and saying the overall school system is not inclusive here. As a narrative, that simply doesn’t add up.”

The inspectorate has also previously failed to honour a pledge to crack down on off-rolling by failing to call it out by name in some inspection reports, Mr Uttley said.

Ofsted is set to look at the practice again through new annual safeguarding reviews.

There is also criticism of Ofsted’s SEND area inspections, which Mr Murphy described as as a “broad brush evaluation of provision within the local authority, who actually have limited influence over the different parts of the sector”.

Ofsted has now put the introduction of follow-up visits to failing SEND areas on hold, in a move described as “irresponsible” by campaigners.

In an exclusive interview with Tes last week, Ofsted’s chief inspector Sir Martyn Oliver said that he wanted to ensure schools “are getting reward” for working with pupils with SEND.

He said: “I don’t want a scenario where because of Ofsted any school says: ‘We didn’t take a child because we feared it would hurt our Ofsted inspection.’”

The DfE has been approached for comment.

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