NGA welcomes the Education Select Committee’s recommendations on Ofsted
The Education Select Committee has published its findings and recommendations on improving Ofsted’s work with schools, drawing on extensive evidence from across the sector including NGA testimony.
The Committee’s inquiry concluded that “Ofsted and the Government must rebuild trust and make major changes to school inspections”.
Today’s report sets out the inquiry’s main findings and recommendations in areas such as the use of single-word judgements, the impact of judgements after an inspection and the inspections of multi academy trusts.
NGA actively participated in the committee’s inquiry, giving oral evidence at the House of Commons in October 2023 where NGA Deputy Chief Executive, Sam Henson, elaborated on NGA’s research and shared member’s real-life experiences of Ofsted inspections.
Emma Knights commented:"NGA very much welcomes today’s report from the House of Commons Education committee on Ofsted’s work with schools. The committee’s analysis and conclusions supports many of the concerns that NGA has raised for some years, including that “The short and formulaic nature of inspection reports is limiting the extent to which they are useful to schools”.
Their recommendation that Ofsted and the Department should work together to develop an alternative to the current single-word grade is an important one.
We are also pleased to see the committee recommend that the inspections of multi academy trusts should be dealt with now “as a matter of urgency”. The Government’s refusal to do on the grounds that the trust system is immature, no longer holds water in 2024.
However, we would like to have seen the same sense of urgency and clarity in the recommendations about introducing more regular safeguarding audits by independent experts, separate from Ofsted.
We look forward to working with the new HMCI on the range of issues as he attempts to restore trust in the inspection system.”