The government should stop the use of single-word judgments such as “inadequate” or “outstanding” in Ofsted’s headline grades of schools in England, a committee of MPs has urged.
MPs on the education committee said relations between Ofsted and teachers had become “extremely strained”, with trust in the watchdog “worryingly low” in the wake of the headteacher Ruth Perry’s suicide last year after a traumatic inspection.
Ofsted had downgraded Perry’s school in Reading from outstanding to inadequate, and a coroner called for changes to be made by the Department for Education (DfE) and Ofsted in how schools are inspected.
Robin Walker, the Conservative MP who chairs the committee, said: “Clearly there is a need for a rigorous inspection regime. But the bulk of the evidence we received expressed widespread and deep concern about how the system works.
“On the now totemic issue of single-word judgments, Ofsted and ministers should heed the widespread calls for change. We urge the new chief inspector [Martyn Oliver] and government to consider a more nuanced system that can provide value to both schools and parents.”
Prof Julia Waters, Perry’s sister, described the committee’s findings as a call to action to address the “toxic impacts” of an inspection regime that had damaged many teachers and headteachers.
“Ruth was totally committed to her pupils, to her fellow teachers and to her school. The world, and the lives of so many people, would be so much brighter if Ruth was still in it,” she said. “My family and I can only hope that this report and its recommendations will help to bring about the change needed to prevent other tragedies from occurring in the future.”
A DfE spokesperson said the department would give careful consideration to the committee’s proposals but offered no hints that it would overhaul the use of single-phrase headline grades. Ofsted rates schools as outstanding, good, requiring improvement or inadequate, based on grades awarded under headings such as leadership and management.
“Ofsted’s overall judgment succinctly summarises inspection findings, which gives parents the confidence in choosing the right school for their child and provides a clear basis for taking action to improve underperforming schools,” the spokesperson said.
The committee’s report said there was only “mixed evidence” that parents found Ofsted’s inspection reports useful, and quoted surveys showing that a majority of parents dislike single-word headline judgments and that only 8% said they were the most important factor in choosing a school.
The committee’s investigation found that the judgments were a key cause of stress for school leaders and recommended that the DfE and Ofsted “work together as a priority to develop an alternative to the current single-word overall judgment that better captures the complex nature of a school’s performance”.
An Ofsted spokesperson said it welcomed the committee’s recommendations, and added: “We have started making changes to the way we work but we know more must be done to address the pressures faced by school leaders and staff.”
Geoff Barton, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said the findings confirmed that the inspection regime had “devastating consequences” for school and college leaders in England.
“We are pleased that the committee has added their voice to the calls from ASCL and many others for an alternative to single-phrase judgments, which must now be consigned to history once a new system can be agreed upon,” Barton said.
Daniel Kebede, the general secretary of the National Education Union, said the MPs still failed to grasp the scale of the problems caused by Ofsted’s inspections.
“Any model of change must begin by understanding the deep crisis that schools are enduring in respect of workload, staffing, attendance and mental health. We don’t see such an understanding reflected in these recommendations,” he said. “We need Ofsted to be replaced altogether by a system of inspection which is supportive, effective and fair. The inspectorate in its current form is none of these things.”
The committee said it expected Ofsted to pay close attention to the recommendations in the coroner’s report on Perry’s death, and it plans to call Oliver before it twice a year to review progress.
The MPs also backed calls for a review of how school safeguarding could be inspected regularly by local authorities or by an independent body. Ofsted could then continue to inspect “how well schools respond to serious safeguarding issues and how effectively children are protected in practice”.
