Source · Select Committees · Education Committee
Recommendation 27
27
Accepted
Paragraph: 88
Review and strengthen support mechanisms for school leaders' wellbeing during and after inspections.
Recommendation
The Department and Ofsted should review the support mechanisms available to school leaders during and following an inspection and ensure that these are as strong as possible to support the wellbeing of school leaders. Ofsted must publish a clear policy, and train inspectors, on their approach to dealing with distress among school leaders during an inspection, and in what cases inspections can and should be paused or deferred. We note that lessons could be learned from Ofsted’s approach to deferring inspections in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic, but deferrals alone are not enough to resolve this issue.
Government Response Summary
The government has provided mental health awareness training for all lead inspectors and committed to ensuring all inspection staff complete it by March 2024. They have also published a new policy allowing inspection pauses for headteacher support, directly addressing key aspects of the recommendation.
Paragraph Reference:
88
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
We recognise that inspection and regulation can sometimes be challenging for providers, and we welcome the Committee’s focus on the mental health and well-being of those we inspect and regulate. We share a determination to reduce the pressures on those we inspect and regulate. ... We have provided mental health awareness training for all lead inspectors of schools and further education and skills, in line with the Committee’s Recommendation 17, and as we committed to doing in our response to the coroner. We have also committed to ensuring that the entire inspection and regulatory workforce will complete the training before the end of March 2024. Only those who have completed this training will be able to inspect from April 2024. This is just the beginning of our approach to integrating mental health awareness training into our inspector training. We will ensure that inspectors are taught about being aware of and responding to signs of distress. Mental health awareness training is now an integral part of how we induct and develop our inspectors. To support this training, and in order to be transparent about our approach, our handbooks were rapidly updated in January 2024 to reflect how inspectors will respond should they see or become concerned that a staff member is upset or distressed during an inspection. This update set out the processes put in place to support inspectors, including adjusting the inspection (such as the time and length of meetings and taking short breaks to help staff), informing those responsible for the person’s well-being, or, in exceptional circumstances, pausing the inspection. It is important to re-emphasise that the training is not a one-off event, nor is it all we are doing to support mental health first aid. As mentioned above, the training will be built into our continuing professional development offer, and our workforce will always demonstrate and exemplify our values of professionalism, courtesy, empathy and respect. ... We have acted quickly to re-evaluate our policies and practice to ensure that all of our work reflects this commitment. Since September 2023, and following our response to the coroner, we have made a number of changes. We have: • published a new policy to allow inspectors, or the responsible body for a school, to request a pause to a school inspection, for example if it is necessary to provide additional support for a headteacher (in line with Recommendation 17 and as we committed to in our response to the coroner). ... We have already taken action in respect of a number of the Committee’s recommendations (Recommendations 2, 9, 15, 17 and 27).