School leaders’ union Geoff Barton has called for an immediate halt to all routine Ofsted inspections as schools cope with the coronavirus outbreak.
The general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders made the call to the government in his speech to the union’s annual conference in Birmingham.
It follows controversy last night in which the inspectorate was criticised for posting on social media that it was “business as usual for its teams.”
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Mr Barton said this was not a time for business as usual.
To large applause, he called on the government to stop all routine inspections.
Mr Barton said he would be raising this with Ofsted’s national director of education Sean Harford at the ASCL conference today and with education secretary Gavin Williamson when they meet for coronavirus talks tomorrow.
Mr Barton said: “At this time of national emergency, schools and colleges are devoting all of their time and all of their energies and all of their resources to keeping calm, to carrying on.
“They are preparing contingency plans in the event of closures.
“And they are doing this at a time of unprecedented pressure with staff often away and self-isolating in greater numbers all the time.
“This is not a time for business as usual. It’s not a time for business as usual for Ofsted.
“This is a time for the inspectorate to show that it understands the extraordinary pressures on schools and colleges and for the government to suspend all inspections during this crisis.
Mr Barton welcomed Ofsted acknowledging that school inspections could be deferred as a result of the outbreak but he added: “A case-by-case basis is not good enough.
“It simply cannot be right that schools and colleges are judged in a high-stakes manner in these extraordinary circumstances at all.
“The only caveat to this would be if there are specific safeguarding concerns in an educational setting, which Ofsted must obviously check.
“Aside from this scenario, however, we are calling on the government to call a halt to all routine inspections, to enable schools and colleges in a national mission to focus on supporting their students.”
The NAHT school leaders’ union has also called for inspections to be suspended.
General secretary Paul Whiteman said: “To continue inspection creates an unnecessary burden at a time of crisis.
“NAHT has updated its view on inspection. It’s not the time for comment on that now. But I will call on the chief inspector and the secretary of state to suspend inspection, other than in the case of safeguarding concerns.”
Yesterday, the education secretary Gavin Wiliamson told the ASCL conference that expert advice was to keep schools open.
He said: “In the overwhelming majority of situations, there is absolutely no need to close a school or send pupils or staff home.
“Obviously there is action to be taken in the event of a positive test but even then, your local health protection team can help stabilise the situation.
“At present, we are clear that the best course of action is to keep schools open unless you are advised to close by Public Health England.
“The chief medical officer has said the impact of closing schools on children’s education will be substantial, but the benefit to public health would not be.”
An Ofsted spokesperson said: “We’re monitoring the situation closely and are in daily contact with the Department for Education.
“The spread of Covid-19 poses serious challenges to schools, colleges, childcare and social care providers - not least the potential impact on attendance and staffing.
“In light of the government’s decision to move to the ‘delay’ phase, we have reviewed our deferral policy so we can now defer inspections of providers that are affected. We will look very favourably on any requests to defer inspections because of coronavirus.”
