Proposals for overhauled school inspections have been criticised as cosmetic, vague and potentially out of date by school leaders and Department for Education (DfE) officials, just days before approval by Ofsted’s management.
Ofsted, the schools inspectorate, has made changes to its new school inspection toolkit – how it will carry out inspections – after earlier criticisms. It plans on renaming grades and shrinking the number of evaluations areas from nine to seven, in the latest draft seen by the Guardian, but appears unlikely to win over sceptical teachers in England.
The new system is part of efforts to implement the government’s manifesto pledge to replace inspection reports with a “report card” format and do away with single summary grades such as “inadequate” that have become controversial since the death of Ruth Perry in 2023.
But Ofsted’s struggle to reform its inspection framework is turning into a headache for Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, who is also juggling a curriculum review and an overhaul of special needs education in England that are all scheduled to be published in autumn.
The draft proposals, to be approved by Ofsted’s executive on Wednesday, has ditched controversial plans for a “secure” grade and instead renamed it “expected standard”, after complaints that the original term was confusing.
The top grade, previously proposed as “exemplary”, has been replaced by “exceptional”, the “strong” grade amended to “strong standard”, while the lowest “causing concern” grade is changed to “urgent improvement”.
There are also plans to cut the number of evaluation areas from nine to seven, by combining the teaching and curriculum areas into one, and merging the attendance and behaviour areas. It also revises the report card’s “traffic light” colour codes for grades, with the top exceptional grade to be blue instead of dark green.
But the changes have been criticised as “cosmetic” by school leaders and are unlikely to settle the fears of teaching unions and multi-academy trusts, with one describing the proposals as “a pick-and-mix of statutory rules taken from random documents and turned into an inspection framework”.
Those who have seen the revisions say it is studded with ill-defined language asking inspectors to evaluate categories such as leadership or assessment as “broadly,” “typically” or “on the whole” in line with national performance.
“Some of the things that have made it in, you’re thinking, how do you inspect that? There’s a whole lot of vague language. I don’t think they are going to implement it,” one school leader said.
“A lot of schools are going to end up in the middle bracket [of grades] because Ofsted won’t be able to argue against it. It’s a mess, it lacks precision, and there’s too much overlap between different categories.”
DfE officials have raised concerns that the proposals fail to take account of the government’s plans to have mainstream schools open more units for children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send), as part of the overhaul of special needs provision in England to be announced in autumn, around the same time as the new inspection framework is being introduced.
Feedback by DfE officials seen by the Guardian describes “future-proofing and sequencing concerns” about the toolkit, including that the expectations around pupils with Send “may become out of date”.
The DfE feedback also suggests schools may be put off enrolling pupils with special needs because of Ofsted’s requirement that schools must achieve “above average outcomes” in Sats or GCSEs to be awarded high inspection grades.
A spokesperson for Ofsted declined to respond directly to the criticisms but noted: “Our proposals, including the toolkits, will be formally finalised when we publish our response to the consultation in early September and not before.
“We don’t recognise the ‘DfE criticism’ assertion – we are not out of step with government proposals. We have already made clear in recent press releases that we’re revising the toolkits to tighten language, in response to feedback – we are confident this will be recognised in September.”
A DfE spokesperson said: “Our Send reforms will make sure there is more early intervention in mainstream schools, and we are working closely with Ofsted to ensure their education inspection framework enables this.
“We are laying the groundwork to ensure all children have access to the help they need, from more early support in mainstream schools across ADHD, autism and speech and language needs, through to £740m investment to encourage councils to create more specialist places in mainstream schools.”
Ofsted’s full proposals are due to be implemented from November. However, the Association of School and College Leaders and the National Association of Head Teachers have said that timetable is “entirely unacceptable”, adding: “It will significantly add to workload pressures, negatively affect leaders’ and teachers’ wellbeing and mental health, and further undermine trust in the proposed framework.”
Relations between Ofsted and the teaching profession have been deeply strained since a coroner’s finding that Perry’s death was “contributed to by an Ofsted inspection”. Perry’s sister, Julia Waters, has described Ofsted’s proposed changes to inspections as “a rehash of a deeply flawed system”.