Source · Select Committees · Education Committee
Recommendation 45
45
Accepted
Paragraph: 145
Schools should not be judged inadequate for minor safeguarding administrative errors.
Conclusion
The inquest into the death of Ruth Perry also raised concerns about the policy of judging a school ‘inadequate’ solely due to safeguarding. We accept that this only applies to a small number of schools and that Ofsted has taken some steps towards mitigating this issue through quicker re-inspections. Conducting more regular safeguarding audits should also help to reduce the number of schools to which this applies. However, it should never be the case that schools in this situation are judged as ‘inadequate’, and receive an academy order, solely due to minor administrative errors capable of being resolved within a short space of time.
Government Response Summary
The government has clarified that a school will only be judged to have ineffective safeguarding when children are not safe, and has implemented rapid re-inspections for such cases, aiming to prevent 'inadequate' judgments for minor administrative errors. They are also reviewing the framework to potentially make safeguarding a standalone judgment.
Paragraph Reference:
145
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
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: clarified in our inspection handbook, in our training for inspectors and to the sector, more precisely what we mean by ‘ineffective safeguarding’ (in line with Recommendation 26); implemented a policy of rapid return to schools that have been graded inadequate solely due to ineffective safeguarding – allowing them to remedy issues and improve their inspection grade before formal intervention measures take place (in line with Recommendation 27 and as we committed to in our response to the coroner); further clarified that a school will only be judged to have ineffective safeguarding when children are not safe. We are also working on a number of new policies and practices. These include: conducting a formal internal review of where aspects of safeguarding fit within the individual judgements of the education inspection framework, subject to challenge from an expert group. As part of this, we are considering having safeguarding as a standalone judgement, decoupled from the leadership and management grade (as we committed to in our response to the coroner). This consideration will continue as part of the Big Listen, with the response to the Big Listen setting out our agreed approach to reform.