Ofsted and Accountability for Schools and Nurseries in England

This week, Community has published its responses to two consultations on school accountability, and changes to Ofsted Inspections in England.

Head of Education Policy, Martin Hodge said:

Every school wants a system which is fair and transparent and whilst there are some good ideas, we need to properly work them through to make sure they are the right ones.  Unfortunately, we fear these proposals risk increasing workload and making a feared system even worse.

In our response we have prioritised a collaborative approach to accountability, suggesting removing the combative and competitive systems currently in place to support improvement.  But Ofsted have proposed assessing schools, nurseries, and colleges in even more areas from the Autumn.  Community think that it is unwise to progress with substantial changes to inspection and accountability without proper consideration, trials and evaluation.  Respondents to our survey were concerned that the changes were being rushed and risked making workload, and the high-stakes nature of accountability worse.

Similarly, the DfE’s proposed school profiles will contain a lot of data which could easily be misunderstood and misused without proper contextualisation and whilst the proposed support from RISE teams could be a good thing, it is too early to say.

Community’s Operations Director, Helen Osgood said:

“Community welcomes the review of school accountability, but we have some concerns about increased workload, high-stakes evaluations, and a lack of clarity over the specifics of the proposed changes.

“Community wants to see a supportive, collaborative, and context-sensitive system focused on improvement, not punishment.”

You can read our full response to Ofsted HERE.

You can read our response to the Department for Education HERE.