Inspection framework is ‘fair and balanced’ for post-Covid, says Chief Inspector
Ofsted’s Chief Inspector, Amanda Spielman, attended an accountability hearing of the education select committee on Tuesday. Robin Walker MP chaired the committee for the first time since his election as chair last week.
Robin Walker opened the session by asking what Amanda Spielman thought were her proudest achievements, and biggest regrets, since her reappointment in May 2021. Spielman highlighted the return to full inspection following the suspension of activities during the pandemic.
Speaking more widely about her time as HMCI, Spielman said she was pleased with the new education inspection framework, with a shift to ‘testing the substance and integrity of education in a well-balanced overall framework’. She said that as we come out of the pandemic, the new framework is a fair and balanced instrument.
She argued that the number of ‘outstanding’ schools had become uncomfortably high under the old framework. She again reiterated that the new framework shifted to substance, not concerned ‘simply about completion of processes’ or with outcome indicators, but instead on what is actually being achieved. She said that inspections now produced a better distribution of outcomes, and was balancing out the perverse incentives that emerged in attainment data driven inspection grades.
Recent Ofsted data has highlighted the downgraded significant numbers of previously outstanding schools. However, while some outstanding schools have had a change in their grade, under the education inspection framework introduced in 2019, more schools in the North East have moved into good or outstanding. The most recent Ofsted data has 88.5% of schools in our region at good or outstanding, slightly above the national average.
It is encouraging that the hard work staff put into school improvement and developing a curriculum is better recognised in recent inspection results, as more schools in the North East move out of inadequate and requires improvement grades. However, the ambition to inspect all schools by 2025 is putting significant workload pressures on staff, at a time when they are still addressing the impact of the pandemic on children and young people. These inspections are also being carried out with any changes to an inspection framework that was created prior to the pandemic.
Walker also asked about worries around off-rolling and home schooling. While Spielman said that we have a map of alternative provision, she added that we lacked a ‘complete picture of the children in the country and of where they are being educated’. Although attendance rates have improved on last year, all parts of the country have seen attendance drop below 95% this term.
Ensuring students are in school, accessing the right provision at the right time, is crucial to educational ‘catch-up’ and levelling-up. With Spielman’s extended term as HMCI coming to an end next year, Schools North East will continue to ensure the region’s voice is heard.
