The following Answer to an Urgent Question was given in the House
of Commons on Tuesday 3 September.
“As the Government explained in the Written Ministerial Statement
that was laid yesterday, and as was outlined in our manifesto,
single headline grades will no longer be issued by Ofsted when it
inspects state-funded schools. Our landmark reform will drive
high and rising standards for children, and will increase
transparency for parents.
Today Ofsted published the outcome of its Big Listen consultation
exercise, the largest engagement with parents, children and
professionals in its history, which, as the right honourable
Member for East Hampshire () will know, began under the
last Government. The Big Listen contains some difficult messages.
It is clear that significant change is needed, and Ofsted has
responded by committing itself to improvements.
Holding schools accountable for children's education is vital,
but single headline grades are low information for parents and
create high stakes for schools, so this Government are acting,
making inspections both more powerful and more transparent. For
this academic year, parents will continue to see four inspection
grades for the existing subcategories, and from September 2025
the introduction of school report cards will provide a more
complete picture of a school's performance. We will develop those
over the coming months, working closely with parents and
schools.
We want high and rising standards for every child, and we will
act decisively when those standards are not being met. We will
continue to intervene when performance is a serious concern.
Ofsted's legal duty to identify schools causing concern will
remain. It will still be required to notify the Secretary of
State of these inspection outcomes, and she will retain her legal
duty to issue an academy order to local authority-maintained
schools when that is required. However, we will change the way in
which schools are supported to help them succeed. From early
2025, we will introduce regional improvement teams, which will
partner with struggling schools to drive improvement quickly and
directly. This marks the beginning, not the end, of our journey
towards an accountability system that is fit for purpose and will
help to break down the barriers to opportunity for every child
throughout the country”.
12.25pm
(Con)
The improvement in our schools under the last Conservative
Government reflected a combination of high autonomy—we trusted
our school and trust leaders to know the answers for their school
and their community—and high accountability, so that the
interests of children are protected and clear action is taken if
a school is underperforming. That action is led by our best
school trusts, and that is why our international rankings in
England in reading, maths and science have all risen, while in
Labour-run Wales they have sunk. It feels like these principles,
which have driven success and opportunity for our children, are
being eroded, and the changes being proposed to Ofsted
inspections require further explanation.
I acknowledge that the Government say standards will rise as a
result of the changes they are proposing, but school leaders and
parents need to know how. Can the Minister explain what will
actually be new on the new school report cards? There is an
enormous amount of information and publicly available data on
schools, and there is obviously a great deal of detail in the
existing Ofsted reports. What is the gap that the Government have
identified and what is the problem they are trying to solve? What
evidence does the Minister have that the regional improvement
teams proposed by the Government will be more effective than
strong academy trusts in turning around underperforming schools?
Finally, how will decisions on interventions in underperforming
schools be taken between now and September 2025?
The Minister of State, Department for Education ( of Malvern) (Lab)
In response to the noble Baroness's first remarks, I agree that
teachers and school leaders deserve enormous congratulation on
the improvements that they have made in schools, and this
Government are committed to supporting them to achieve even
higher standards for all our pupils.
The announcement that the Government have made alongside Ofsted
is the removal of the single headline grade for Ofsted
inspections, something that provided a relatively low level of
information but of course had enormously high stakes for schools.
In doing that, we are absolutely committed to ensuring that
parents have the information they need to be able to make
decisions for their children, and that schools have the
information to enable them to improve. That is why we will work
with schools, parents and young people themselves, and Ofsted
will lead this to help to develop the report cards that will
provide more useful information.
The noble Baroness was, understandably, particularly interested
in the impact on intervention. To be absolutely clear, where
Ofsted identifies serious concerns with a school, the current
situation whereby the Secretary of State can ensure that a
maintained school becomes an academy or a failing academy is
forced to become part of an academy trust remains. There is no
change there but where schools could benefit from improvement,
the development of regional improvement teams, apart from an
early structural intervention in the management of schools, gives
us an additional way to promote improvement in our schools and
make sure that all children, wherever they are learning, are
gaining the highest standards and schools are being held to
account for delivering those.
(LD)
My Lords, these Benches welcome the changes to Ofsted inspections
and applaud the Government for the speedy way they have acted.
Following the tragic suicide of Mrs Perry, noble Lords will
recall that the review of what happened found that Ofsted had
acted in a way that was
“defensive and complacent rather than reflective and
self-critical”.
For us, school improvement is not about wielding a big stick—it
is about collaboration, support and valuing schools and helping
them to get better. How does the Minister see well-being and
mental support of staff being provided during an inspection?
of Malvern (Lab)
The noble Lord is right to outline the comments made by the
coroner in the case of the tragic death of Ruth Perry and by the
Education Select Committee in another place about the impact of
the single headline grade in those circumstances. That is part of
the reason for the Government's decision to remove that single
headline grade, while maintaining a wealth of information from
the Ofsted inspection in the report card that is being
developed.
I will be frank with the noble Lord. Having been on the receiving
end of an Ofsted inspection both in schools and children's social
care, I think the inspections will always bring pressure on to
schools and other settings, and so they should. The point is
whether they are bringing pressure to good effect. During its Big
Listen process, Ofsted has also had the opportunity to consider
how to maintain that rigorous inspection and accountability
process but to do that in a way, as the noble Lord says, that
focuses on accountability and improvement but does not put undue
stress on to schools and head teachers.
(Lab)
My Lords, does the Minister agree that considerable good practice
is available internationally on how best to inspect and evaluate
schools and that there is enormous understanding within the
profession about how best to improve our schools? On that basis,
I congratulate my Government on making this early decision. In
response to the noble Baroness opposite about what question the
Government are trying to answer with this, I think they are
trying to answer that question of unrealistic, unreasonable
pressure on individuals in schools from that headline judgment.
If it did nothing else other than prevent any other head teacher
taking their own life, it would be absolutely worth doing.
Having been a teacher myself, I know that all teachers welcome
engagement with those authorities which seek to assist them to
improve in their practice. I am confident—and I hope the noble
Baroness agrees—that a move towards a balanced scorecard,
engaging the profession and looking at best practice
internationally is absolutely the way to ensure that we have an
increasing number of self-improving schools for all our young
people.
of Malvern (Lab)
I strongly agree with my noble friend, particularly on the points
about how very good existing school leaders can support school
improvement more widely and about learning from international
experience. I know that Ofsted, in its consideration of
improvement of the education inspection framework, will reflect
on that, as will the Government. One reason for saying that it is
a good idea to introduce the regional improvement teams in the
way in which the Government are suggesting is because that
enables us to build on the expertise of leaders in academies and
other schools to support those schools which need to improve to
be able to do so. In some cases, it will be necessary to change
the management arrangements of schools but, short of that, much
can be done to bring good practice to bear on those schools that
need improvement, and we should make use of that capacity across
the system.
(Con)
Does the Minister agree that sometimes too much information makes
it very difficult for people to understand what the situation is?
I am not particularly one way or the other about a single word,
but I think it is very important for parents to see in very short
terms what they can help with. I have to say to the previous
questioner that I do not believe that all teachers are always
happy about pressure to improve the circumstances. Can the
Minister assure me that the reports will now be written in such a
way that there will be a couple of lines which emphasise the
things that need to be done; otherwise, I fear we will be messed
up by too many words?
of Malvern (Lab)
The noble Lord is absolutely right, and I suspect Members of this
House understand the danger of being messed up by too many words.
This is the beginning of a process, so the removal of the single
headline grade still leaves four subheadings in the important
areas of quality of education, behaviour, personal development,
and leadership and management. The process for developing the
single report card will, as he rightly argues, involve parents
alongside teachers and others in determining the information they
really need and how it is presented in a digestible and
understandable way. I can assure the noble Lord that this will
also, as will Ofsted's broader reports, include areas where the
school needs to improve so that everybody can be clear about what
needs to happen and there is that maintained accountability for
schools to continue improving.
