Suggestions that Ofsted’s proposed changes to inspection will not drive up staff workload in schools are “nonsense”, headteachers have warned, citing concerns about increased monitoring inspections, vague toolkits and additional evaluation areas.
Ofsted chief inspector Sir Martyn Oliver told the Association of School and College Leaders’ (ASCL) annual conference last week that nothing in the watchdog’s proposals “should be a surprise or require extra work from you”.
However, school leaders have shared with Tes their concerns about potential workload pressures that the new inspection report card system could create.
Ofsted plans ‘inevitably impact workload’
The inspectorate’s consultation proposes that inspections scrutinise schools across nine different areas, with a new five-point grading scale.
“Ofsted’s proposals double the number of graded judgements, where a single ‘attention needed’ would lead to a monitoring inspection, inevitably driving workload,” said Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union.
During his ASCL conference speech in Liverpool, Sir Martyn’s message that “I don’t want you to be doing anything ‘for Ofsted’” was met with laughter from some delegates.
“The notion that no extra work is needed is nonsense,” Mr Whiteman said. “Preparation is an entirely rational action in the context of a system with career-defining consequences.”
Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the NEU teaching union, added: “The increase in judgement areas threatens to exacerbate the problem of inspection workload.”
Tes analysis found that Ofsted’s proposals could result in 390,625 possible inspection outcomes; the old system had a maximum of 256.
“We fear this framework will intensify workload pressures,” Mr Kebede said. “School leaders are asked to do more with less funding and less experienced and stable staff.”
A Department for Education survey found that workload was the most common reason for teachers to consider leaving the profession.
‘Vagueness’ of inspection toolkits
Tom Richmond, a former DfE adviser, warned that Ofsted’s inspection toolkits could also increase the workload of teachers and headteachers.
As Tes revealed last year, Ofsted is proposing to launch toolkits that explain to leaders how the inspectorate will judge schools across the different areas.
“I’m already having disturbing visions of leadership teams spending hours debating whether teachers in the school are ‘expertly’ checking pupils’ understanding in lessons or merely ‘systematically’ checking pupils’ understanding,” Mr Richmond said.
”The vagueness and subjectivity of the proposals are not only going to reduce the consistency of inspections but they are also going to waste huge amounts of precious management time.”
Julie McCulloch, ASCL’s director of strategy and policy, echoed this: “Teachers and school leaders will need to spend significant time understanding and implementing the criteria for securing a high grade across at least eight performance areas.”
This week Ofsted was told that it may need to create separate toolkits for special schools.
Difficulties for primary schools
Sir David Carter, a former national schools commissioner, told Tes that the proposed new inspection framework might encourage leaders to “restructure their leadership teams to accommodate a larger number of scrutiny areas”, which would be “unsustainable and ill advised”.
He added that some senior leadership teams are already “reducing in size...as a result of funding challenges”, and warned that small primary schools, in particular, will struggle with “the increased scope of inspection”.
While Ofsted has scrapped subject deep dives and ungraded inspections, the Headteachers’ Roundtable has raised concerns that the new framework could still be difficult for primary schools.
“Primary schools have spent five years developing these amazing subject leaders who are equipped to lead deep dives,” the group said.
“Now all bets are off - if inspectors need two months in the autumn term to learn how to inspect again, we can only imagine how much time and energy will be spent helping staff teams to prepare for the new requirements?”
‘Inconsistency’ of inspection teams
Dame Alison Peacock, CEO of the Chartered College of Teaching, said any new inspection framework would cause “additional work for teachers and leaders as they work to understand the changes and implications for their practice”.
But she does not believe that Ofsted has done enough to mitigate the workload pressures of inspection, in particular the “huge problem of inconsistency between inspection teams”.
“If schools can’t be sure which type of team they will encounter, they will attempt to prepare for all eventualities, leading to additional workload,” Dame Alison said.
Meanwhile, Gemma Piper, CEO of The Park Academies Trust, which has eight schools, hopes that any increase in workload will be temporary.
A need for additional training to prepare for the new inspections will come at a time when school budgets are already “under pressure”, with “schools having to be as efficient as possible with all available staff and resources”, Ms Piper said.
Leaders have proposed ways in which Ofsted could reduce workload pressures.
Mark Wilson, CEO of Wellspring Academy Trust, which has 33 schools, said any new Ofsted framework should be in the public domain for two years before implementation.
“This would allow schools to plot a graduated trajectory towards the new framework,” he said. “The way to manage the workload spike is to put the transition into the hands of school leaders.”
There is also the issue of workload within the Ofsted workforce: inspectors have already told Tes that their planning and preparation time could become “unsustainable” under the proposed changes. And an Ofsted working group has been established to support the organisation’s most senior inspectors.
Matt Newman, national officer of the FDA trade union, which represents inspectors, warned that “steps must be taken to ensure [Ofsted’s proposals] won’t compound the problem and we can start to reverse the trend of ever-increasing workloads”.
An Ofsted spokesperson said: “We want our inspections to raise standards for all children and provide better information for parents. And it’s vital they are also useful and workable for education leaders and inspectors.
“We would encourage everyone to look at our detailed proposals and respond to the consultation.”
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