Campaign to replace Ofsted with 'supportive' system

The National Education Union (NEU) has called for a pause to all Ofsted inspections, because of the detrimental effect it has on leaders’ health, well-being and workload.

This comes from the ongoing fallout over inspections following the death of Ruth Perry, headteacher at Caversham primary school in Berkshire, who took her own life ahead of a school inspection report being published that rated her school as inadequate.

Dr Mary Bousted, Joint General Secretary of the National Education Union, said: “The levels of anxiety, sleeplessness and distrust that NEU’s leaders report in anticipation of inspection, or during inspection, is overwhelming and shocking.

“Ofsted as an agency must take responsibility for the breakdown in trust. Ofsted is in the eye of a storm and seems incapable of responding to leaders’ concerns. One head described Ofsted as ‘arbitrary, ill-informed and brutalising’.  

“For school leaders, the excessive high stakes and punitive nature of inspection can be intolerable and have a devastating impact on their professional and personal lives.

“The wellbeing of staff is affected by high workloads that are driven by pressures on schools to be ‘Ofsted ready’ at all times. Just this week, a new study from University College London and the University of Cardiff, funded by the NEU, shows that teachers who believe an Ofsted inspection is likely in the coming 12 months have a higher work intensity with lower task discretion and are more likely to report always coming home from work exhausted than teachers not in ‘the Ofsted window’.

Dr Mary Bousted believes that a single word judgement is unfair and reliable. She explains: “There is little evidence to indicate that Ofsted is a force for improvement, and it does not support schools to meaningfully evaluate their strengths and weaknesses.

“Ofsted’s single-word judgements are unfair and unreliable and cannot possibly capture the complexity of a school and the quality of its education. The NEU has called for a pause to all inspections because of the emerging picture on leaders’ health, well-being and workload.

“The NEU is campaigning for Ofsted to be replaced with a system that is supportive, effective and fair. At our Conference, there have been focus groups with a research team who are working to develop a better alternative.”