Source · Select Committees · Education Committee
Recommendation 25
25
Deferred
Paragraph: 86
High-stakes inspection system causes significant stress and job insecurity for school leaders.
Conclusion
The ‘high-stakes’ nature of the current system is clearly causing a significant amount of stress and worry for school leaders. In particular, there is an overwhelming fear among headteachers that they risk losing their job following a less than ‘good’ judgement, and the Department’s guidance is unclear as to whether this is routinely the case. The extension of academy orders to schools with two consecutive judgements of ‘requires improvement’ has further exacerbated this problem. We are clear that there should be consequences for schools which are performing badly, but that this should be proportionate, and there must be suitable mechanisms available to support leaders.
Government Response Summary
The government states that the issues of proportionate consequences of inspection and suitable support mechanisms for leaders are matters for the Department for Education (DfE), not Ofsted, and commits to engaging with the DfE on them.
Paragraph Reference:
86
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government
Deferred
Many of the recommendations in the Committee’s report fall to the DfE, rather than Ofsted. We will engage with the DfE on inspection grades (Recommendation 14), on ensuring the consequences of inspection are proportionate (Recommendation 16), on support for schools that need to improve (particularly through our monitoring programmes) (Recommendation 18) and on considering new approaches to inspecting safeguarding (Recommendation 26). However, these are matters for the DfE, as is Recommendation 19 on improving the transparency and accountability of the work of the regional directors. ... Nearly all of the other recommendations fall to the DfE (Recommendations 4, 14, 16, 18 to 19, 26 and 28), and we commit to engaging with them on all relevant matters. We note that Recommendation 19 is not a matter for Ofsted.