Secretary of State for Education (): Today I am announcing
the Government's response to its consultation on school
accountability reform. It is vital we have a better
accountability system that sets clear expectations, facilitates
improvement and spreads excellence to drive high and rising
standards for every child throughout each phase of their
education. I would like to thank all who responded to the
consultation, the Government values the feedback.
The consultation received 870 responses and officials met with
stakeholders including groups representing teachers, school
leaders, governors and Local Authorities, and with parents to
discuss the proposals. It ran in parallel to Ofsted's
consultation on education inspection reform and report cards.
Ofsted is publishing its response today also.
My department consulted on:
- our approach to improving school accountability, and the
principles guiding our work, so there is a shared understanding
of what drives our approach;
- the department's future vision for school profiles – an
accessible digital service providing information about schools,
supporting parental choice and collaboration between schools; and
- new arrangements for intervention in maintained schools and
academies, including when academisation to change the governance
of a school is needed to drive high and rising standards for
every child.
The consultation demonstrated strong support for our
accountability principles. In response to feedback, we have
further strengthened our commitment to inclusion, ensuring that
our reforms support all children and young people, regardless of
circumstances. This supports the Government's Opportunity Mission
to break the link between background and success. Ofsted will
also introduce inclusion as a standalone evaluation area in its
renewed inspection framework, reinforcing its importance across
the system.
There was also strong support for school profiles, with 77% of
respondents agreeing that they should be the central source for
up-to-date information on school performance. This academic year,
we will develop two new digital services to support parents and
schools. The first is school profiles, giving parents a more
rounded picture by bringing useful information about schools
together in one place and helping them to make informed decisions
about their children's education. The second is a digital school
improvement service that will help schools compare their
performance with other schools and support collaboration and
sharing of best practice.
Subject to the passage of the Children's Wellbeing and Schools
Bill, structural intervention through issuing of academy orders
will continue to be the default approach for schools in special
measures, because no child should be left in a school that does
not have the capacity to improve. For those schools that Ofsted
judges do have capacity to improve, from September 2026 our
Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellence Teams (RISE)
will get in quickly working with the responsible body to begin
implementing interventions to drive rapid and sustainable
improvements. If, for whatever reason, a school in this position
has not improved sufficiently within 18 months, we will normally
issue an academy order to ensure it gets the leadership and
support it needs. We will also expand RISE Support to those
schools with very low levels of pupil attainment with a further
consultation on this. Using a combination of structural and RISE
mandatory interventions we will drive improvement activity with
on average around twice as many mandatory interventions as were
covered in the two years prior to the policy change.
We welcome Sinead McBrearty's independent report on the workload
and wellbeing implications of the inspection reforms, which
Ofsted commissioned, and which it has published today. We are
committed to ensuring, in line with our principles, that our
reforms take into account the context in which schools and
providers operate, and the impact of our arrangements on workload
and the wellbeing of leaders, teachers and staff.
The Department's reforms have been designed to work alongside
Ofsted's renewed education inspection framework and new report
cards, the details of which have been published today as part of
its consultation response.
Ofsted's new approach completes the move away from oversimplistic
single headline grades to providing parents and staff with a much
clearer, much broader picture of how schools are performing –
that's what report cards will provide. The renewed framework
strengthens accountability and will help to drive high and rising
standards. This includes a stronger focus on achievement,
attendance, inclusion and how the needs of disadvantaged and
vulnerable children and young people are being met. Enhanced
monitoring will mean a swifter return from inspectors to check
that progress is being made where it's needed.
Taken together, the measures announced by the Department and
Ofsted today give parents the clear and reliable information they
need to make informed choices about their child's education. And
it will give school leaders, staff and responsible bodies the
necessary information and support to help all schools move
forward towards excellence.
