Parents in England can no longer rely on Ofsted inspections as a trustworthy guide to school quality, former education secretaries and leaders have warned.
Justine Greening, a former Conservative education secretary, said ministers should consult with parents over what they needed to know about individual schools, while former education secretaries David Blunkett and Kenneth Baker said the inspection regime needed an overhaul to provide better insights into how pupils are benefiting from their education.
The criticisms follow damning comments by Sir Michael Wilshaw, a former headteacher who led Ofsted until 2016, who told MPs that inspection judgments “are not giving parents an accurate picture of what’s happening in schools. It’s providing parents with false comfort.”
Wilshaw said he no longer supported the use of single-phrase summary judgments such as “good”, “outstanding” or “inadequate”, which both Ofsted and the government have defended as useful yardsticks for parents choosing schools for their children.
Lord Blunkett, who served as education secretary in Tony Blair’s administration, said: “I agree with the previous head of Ofsted, Michael Wilshaw, that simplistic judgments turned into one or two-word outcome measures are no longer meaningful in a post-Covid world of complex elements building a meaningful picture of how a school is performing.
“It is crucial that those undertaking inspections have history and hands-on experience within the age range, type of school and specific challenges, and that a critique of performance should be turned into positive proposals which would help with the process of change.”
Lord Baker, who was education secretary under Margaret Thatcher and remains heavily involved in college leadership, said that while inspection of school was essential, changes that have streamlined and shortened the inspection process have removed the depth of information they once provided.
“I think it’s unlikely that as many as 80% or 90% [of schools] are good or outstanding, quite frankly. I’d be suspicious of that figure,” Baker said.
Instead, Baker proposed that Ofsted and schools should provide detailed “destination data” about where pupils go after leaving, recording which pupils take up apprenticeships, enrol in higher or further education or employment.
“All schools should record what the destination data of their students is, when they leave at 18, and I would do that rather than fundamentally reform Ofsted.
“Destination data is a key judgment for a school because, at the end of the day, it’s important to know what happens to them after leaving state education,” Baker said.
Baker has spearheaded the growth of university technical colleges, concentrating on vocational and technical education for 14- to 18-year-olds, and said his experience was that parents found it “enormously helpful” to know what careers previous students had followed.
Greening, who served as education secretary between 2016 and 2018, said it had been 30 years since Ofsted began regular inspections of schools and much had changed in that time.
“My point is that when Ofsted was set up, using one-word summaries, it was in an era where there was no internet. There was no ability for parents to get reliable information on the schools their children may want to go to,” Greening said.
“We are now even in an age when there is a huge amount of information available, so we need to be asking parents what they actually want, and I don’t believe that the Department for Education has done that in a systematic way recently.
“If you talk to teachers and listen to well-regarded experts such as Sir Michael Wilshaw, there’s a genuine concern about the way that inspections are carried out – their ability to give reliable information and their ability to drive school improvement.
“That all adds up to the need for a reassessment of Ofsted’s role and its objectives, and as: what is it really achieving?”
Sir David Bell, Ofsted’s chief inspector between 2002 and 2006 and currently vice-chancellor of the University of Sunderland, said he was a firm advocate of school inspections but that it was “timely and sensible” to review the use of judgments, as Labour has pledged to do if it wins the next general election.
“Public and professional confidence is vital, as inspection – and the improvement actions it should trigger – will be much less effective if there is no trust in the process,” Bell said.
The format of Ofsted inspections has been heavily criticised by teaching unions since the death of headteacher Ruth Perry earlier this year, whose family said killed herself after a “devastating” Ofsted inspection that downgraded her primary school from outstanding to inadequate.
Other organisations have been critical of the focus of school inspections. The children’s charity Barnardo’s has told MPs that Ofsted’s framework “does not currently reflect schools’ challenges in responding to mental health and wellbeing needs”.
An Ofsted spokesperson said: “Inspections are carefully designed to get under the bonnet of a school to really understand how well it works, providing a unique insight to parents. We look at all the things that are important to parents, including the quality of the education, behaviour and how safely and well the school is run.
“Our reports provide a rounded picture of a school with its strengths and areas for improvement, and ensure that schools across the country aim for the highest standards for children.”
Ofsted highlighted that its reports “were created in consultation with parents and the wider schools sector” when it developed its education inspection framework in 2019.
