On Thursday 5th December, Sir Martyn Oliver launched his first Ofsted annual report as His Majesty’s Chief inspector. I am very happy with my job and don’t generally envy the jobs of others but I have particularly not envied him his this year! He joined at a time of huge criticism of Ofsted and with a mandate to make major changes, all under more scrutiny than most organisations get. He’s impressed me with his engagement and dignity under fire, and I sat down to read the report with interest.
Since the post-election move to remove ‘single-word judgments’ from state-maintained schools, independent and non-maintained schools and social care providers have been asking when this will happen for them. We now know that there will be a consultation on a new inspection framework in the New Year with the intent to move all inspections to a ‘report card’ style summary. It’s quite a slow move for social care providers who won’t see changes until 2026.
This is a different annual report from usual, without the grade scores and comparisons of different types of providers. I twitched a bit at this – it’s been my favourite bit of past reports – but understand that I can still get a statistics fix on the Ofsted website. The narrative-based approach has its focus firmly on the future and what Ofsted would like to do differently.
The media has latched onto the section on children receiving ‘unorthodox patterns of education’ and, in particular, the rise in ‘flexible schooling’ where children are home-schooled for part of the week and attend school for others. Narrative on children with SEND and ‘the most vulnerable’ follows but they are likely not separate stories. I was disappointed to see Sir Martyn flag the growing number of EHCPs as a problem – not because it suggests that we are failing to meet need via any other route but because it stretches resources too thin. I’d welcome further analysis of the children being schooled at home for part of the week and the number of those with identified and unidentified special educational needs. I would be surprised if at least some of those families had felt compelled to meet their child’s needs themselves in the absence of effective and reliable support.
I was pleased to see Sir Martyn mention recruitment and retention – specifically in relation to SEND. This is not a new issue but it’s good to have his voice alongside that of schools and residential providers in raising this. NASS has long called for a full SEND workforce strategy that goes wider than teachers and educational psychologists in schools and social workers in social care. This surely has to be a major part of any further reforms?
There’s no real hint of what the new inspection framework might look like or whether current elements, such as the ‘3 I’s of curriculum will be retained. I hope we will get some details early in the New Year as knowing that change is coming without knowing what that change will be creates stress and anxiety for school staff and leaders. That’s territory that Ofsted will want to steer well clear of after working hard to show a generally kinder, gentler version of inspections in recent months.
I am still looking forward to hearing more about the new Ofsted Academy that will train inspectors and, like many, hoping I may get a chance to influence this and to support the development of the next generation of inspectors. I’d also like the pie charts back next year please – I miss them!