A headteachers’ union plans to poll members on whether to stop working as inspectors after Ofsted’s final plans for school report cards were branded “punitive” and “flawed”.
Under the plans, published today, the watchdog has stuck to its intention to inspect schools across a five-point grading scale, but has reduced the number of areas being assessed.
However, education unions say there are still too many inspection areas and that they have “grave concerns” about staff wellbeing.
Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said Ofsted’s announcement today amounted to “minor and cosmetic changes to a flawed rationale”.
He said: “We have previously said that we will consider encouraging members who serve as Ofsted inspectors to withdraw their services and we will now put that question to our elected members.”
The rollout of the new inspections - which will start from November, but be on a voluntary basis until 1 December - was “far too rushed”, Mr Di’Iasio added.
Framework a ‘recipe for burnout’
Ofsted commissioned an independent review of wellbeing, carried out by Sinéad Mc Brearty, chief executive of charity Education Support, as part of its consultation on the changes.
The review found a series of concerns from those in the school sector, including over the timeline of changes and the increased number of evaluation areas.
Mr Di’Iasio warned that the new inspection system was a recipe for professional burnout, saying: “We are gravely concerned about the welfare of leaders and teachers as well as the impact on recruitment and retention.”
And he called on Ofsted to remember that the original reform process began with the death of headteacher Ruth Perry, who took her own life in 2023 after an Ofsted judgement.
Plans risk ‘serious harm’ to leaders
Similar concerns were raised by Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union the NAHT, who said that Ofsted’s new approach to inspection “poses a direct risk to the health and wellbeing of school leaders”.
“By not only persisting with grading but extending it across a larger number of areas, Ofsted is perpetuating a high-stakes punitive regime that risks serious harm to school leaders and teachers with career-defining consequences,” Mr Whiteman said.
The NAHT will be polling its members on Ofsted’s latest plans, but Tes understands that it will not be asking headteachers if they will step down as inspectors.
Ofsted: detractors are ‘small but vocal minority’
In response to the unions’ concerns, Ofsted highlighted polling by YouGov, which found that just over two-thirds (67 per cent) of parents said they prefer report cards to the previous system.
The watchdog acknowledged that there had been criticism of its proposals, but said this was down to “a small but vocal minority [who] are calling for reduced accountability or removing grading altogether”.
Included in Ofsted’s press release was a comment from Sir Jon Coles, chief executive of England’s biggest multi-academy trust United Learning, in support of the plans.
Sir Jon said: “It is important to our school system, to parental confidence and ultimately to the success of children that there is high-quality, trusted, independent and rigorous reporting to parents about the quality of their local schools. I am pleased that the new inspection framework looks set to provide this.”
‘Dangerously low on clarity’
The National Governance Association (NGA) also broadly welcomed Ofsted’s revised plans, particularly the introduction of a “governance” evaluation.
NGA chief executive Emma Balchin said she was “grateful that Ofsted responded positively to our concerns on grading scales” and had revised the toolkits that will be used by inspectors to grade schools.
“However, we will continue to advocate for a more explicit integration between the external accountability provided by Ofsted, and the week-in, week-out internal accountability delivered by governing boards across the country,” Ms Balchin added.
But NEU teaching union general secretary Daniel Kebede argued that concern was “widespread across the profession”.
He added that minor improvements “do not go far enough” and that the “punitive and high-stakes consequences remain”.
And Matt Wrack, general secretary of the NASUWT teaching union, said that Ofsted’s plans were “dangerously low on clarity” and questioned who would be responsible for defining “inclusion” and how inspectors would judge a school’s approach.
FDA national officer for Ofsted, Matt Newman, who represents HMI, said that he looks forward to working with Ofsted following the rollout of this new framework.
“HMI strive to deliver the best possible service for parents and education professionals, and we expect them to be given adequate time for training and development ahead of the framework rollout.
“We also expect any additional staffing resources required for delivery to be in place before inspections are started routinely,” Mr Newman said.
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