The decision by Sir Martyn Oliver, the new head of Ofsted, to pause inspections while training is delivered to school inspectors is the very least that should have been expected, following last month’s verdict at the inquest into the death of Ruth Perry. The ruling that Ofsted contributed to the headteacher’s suicide a year ago, after her primary school was downgraded to inadequate, confirmed the worst fears of those who have warned for years of the pressure placed on schools by the inspectorate. The online briefing on teacher welfare announced by Sir Martyn’s predecessor, Amanda Spielman, was rightly rejected as an insultingly inadequate response to the coroner’s prevention of future deaths notice. Sir Martyn’s announcement of a pause while training is given is a marked improvement.
So is his acknowledgment of the strain that schools are now under, as they confront fresh challenges including a rise in absenteeism – with a record number of fines issued to parents for taking children on term-time holidays – and deteriorating pupil behaviour, which is linked to a lack of support for mental health and other social difficulties. A report from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) last month noted that schools have borne up well, relative to other public services, during a decade of cuts rounded off by the pandemic. But with teacher recruitment targets repeatedly missed and serious problems around special needs provision, as well as the issues already mentioned, there is no room for complacency at Ofsted, the Department for Education or any of the other institutions that oversee the school system in England.
Reform of Ofsted is expected under a Labour government, with the abandonment of the traditional one-word judgment in favour of a broader report-card view of how a school is doing. Recent research has found that parents would support this change, although details have yet to be worked out. Such a shift would be significant, but ought not to be seen in isolation. Instead, the highly symbolic switch to a more supportive and less adversarial model of school inspection ought to form part of a broader transition in public services.
Accountability for service providers is important and mechanisms are needed to maintain standards in education, care and other areas. But as the IPPR points out, the new public management model that has dominated since the 1990s, with its heavy emphasis on business-style targets and consumer choice, is increasingly recognised as inadequate. Among its grave flaws is the over-emphasis on reward and punishment, of which there are few clearer examples than the power of Ofsted to make or break schools and their leaders. By contrast, the intrinsic motivation that leads people including teachers to work hard because they believe in what they do – not because they fear being judged as failures – has been systematically neglected.
This neglect is not the only reason for the workforce crisis afflicting much of the public sector. Low pay and workloads also require addressing. But one cost of a culture in which trust, autonomy and relationships are eroded while external monitoring is ramped up is lowered morale. Fortunately, the tragic circumstances of Ruth Perry’s death were unusual – and caution is always required when reflecting on an individual case. But the recognition of the need for change at Ofsted is an opportunity that must not be squandered.
