Ofsted funding statement

Commenting on the announcement that nearly £24 million of funding is being provided to ‘accelerate’ the rate of Ofsted inspection over the coming years, Assistant General Secretary Deborah Lawson (Community Union, Voice Education Section) said:

“This displays an arrogant disregard for the profession at a time when schools and colleges, their staff and students are struggling to work through poor ventilation, rising levels of infection and increasing absence.

“Education recovery for all young people in schools, colleges and early years should be the priority of this government, and yet instead money is being diverted into the inspectorate.

“We are shocked at this announcement and cannot understand the reasoning behind it, since it will take school and college leaders away at a critical time from supporting and leading their own staff and students through this pandemic.

“As yet it is unclear what the inspectorate hopes to achieve by ramping up its inspection timeframe, since the situation in education is incomparable to anything that has happened before.

“Many schools and colleges are suffering from high levels of staff and student absence, and inspection adds additional unnecessary stress.

“This money could have and should have been better spent in the sector elsewhere!”

Further information

• Ofsted accelerates inspections for schools and further education providers 16 November 2021
  Ofsted has been asked by government to inspect all schools and further education (FE) providers by summer 2025, to give a quicker assessment of how well education is recovering from the pandemic.
• The Future of Education campaign.

Further updates

• Letter from Voice Community to Minister Robin Walker MP, December 2021 (pdf)
• Reply from the Minister, January 2022 (pdf) 

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