Commenting on Ofsted’s Annual Report, Chris Keates,
General Secretary of the NASUWT-The Teachers’ Union,
said:
“It is clear from the report that the teaching profession is
continuing to achieve high standards for children and young
people. This is despite the continuing pressures teachers are
facing in terms of depressed pay, excessive workload and the
knock-on impact of the major recruitment and retention crisis.
“This success has been achieved despite the government’s
education policies, not because of them and we see in Ofsted’s
report some of the consequences of the government’s failure to
exercise strategic leadership over the education system.
“The NASUWT supports the call by Ofsted for it to be given the
powers to inspect multi academy trusts and to take action when
concerns are raised about unregistered schools. MATs are
increasingly powerful and influential and they should be held
accountable for their performance in the same way that schools
are. Equally, it is vitally important that where there are
concerns about unregistered schools that the inspectorate has
sufficient powers to intervene to ensure pupils are safe and are
receiving education which is appropriate and of sufficient
quality.
“The NASUWT agrees with Ofsted’s view that it is not right that
schools which are graded as outstanding should be exempt from
inspection. Proportionate, focused inspections which genuinely
support schools to reflect on their progress and continue to
improve should be part of the system of accountability for all
schools.
“Ofsted is correct to raise the impact which declining levels of
local authority funding for wider children’s services are having
on schools. Access to specialist CAMHS support is just one
example where delays and in some cases, the impossibility, of
obtaining expert external support for pupils with mental health
issues is placing schools under acceptable pressure.
“Similarly, local authority provision for children and young
people with special needs is highlighted by the inspectorate as a
concern. There is the need for greater investment in support for
children with high needs, but also greater consistency in how
schools and local authorities cooperate to meet the needs of
these children. At present there is unacceptable variability in
practice between different authorities which means that some
children are not getting the support they need.
“It is shocking that thousands of young people are disappearing
from school rolls each year and the NASUWT agrees with Ofsted
that this is a situation which cannot be allowed to continue. The
NASUWT has called on the Department for Education to give local
authorities the capacity and resources to allow them to challenge
off-rolling and ensure all children receive their entitlement to
education.”
