Social partnership between trade unions, employers and Government will be crucial in ensuring there is an inspection and accountability regime that is accountable, Labour Party members have been told.
At a joint education union fringe event at the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool, NASUWT General Secretary Dr Patrick Roach said the “fear and trepidation” over inspection was “alive and kicking” and reform had to take place.
He detected a shift under the new Labour Government and the momentum for change and reform had to continue, suggesting that through social partnership – in which it is hoped trade unions will have a vital role in helping to shape policy, bring solutions rather than problems to the table and improve the working conditions of teachers – Ofsted can be made accountable to the profession and Parliament.
Dr Roach was speaking alongside the three other education trade unions ASCL, NAHT and NEU and Julia Walters, the sister of headteacher Ruth Perry who killed herself in January 2023 after Ofsted inspectors told her they were going to downgrade her school from Outstanding to Inadequate.
Ms Walters told the packed fringe event: “There have been some changes to the schools inspection system which might have made a difference to the circumstances Ruth found herself in. The most significant and symbolic change has been the scrapping of the one and two word judgements by the current government. But as long as the rest of the punitive, high-stakes inspection system remains in place I remain worried that teachers and headteachers are still at risk.”
Dr Roach paid tribute to the “tireless campaigning” of Ms Walters, adding: “Something has changed, something has shifted and we now need to make sure we maintain that momentum of change and reform. That is what the system needs and that is what our members tell us is so vitally needed.
“Ofsted is a problem and yes Ofsted has a problem. But this is a problem which is deeply rooted within the accountability framework which exists for our schools, for our school leaders and for teachers and others.”
He said it was tempting to say ‘Let’s get rid of Ofsted’ and stressed the debate on that had been played out within the NASUWT which had come to the position that substantial reform was needed.
He added: ““We need to shift the culture within the profession. Even if the culture of Ofsted were to be radically reformed tomorrow I don’t think NASUWT members would believe it because that culture is now so endemic.
“We have to get ideology out of our children’s education. Academisation was all about ideology. But I am not here to argue that we should be abolishing academies tomorrow. That will be something that the Labour Party will have a debate about.
“What I am saying is that the reality of saying every school should become an academy meant there were bound to be casualties.
"Because in order to drive that policy (under Michael Gove) you have to brand schools failing. You have to brand them inadequate, and not only those schools, brokered and re-brokered but headteachers lose their jobs. That is all about striking fear into the heart of the profession and that has got to go.
“Bridget Phillipson – fantastic, getting rid of those single word overall judgements. But what hasn’t gone is the Education and Inspections Act which requires the Secretary of State to act if a school is deemed to be inadequate. In other words it requires the Education Secretary to impose an academy order. So the cause of fear and trepidation is still there, it is still alive and kicking within the system.
“I don’t think Ofsted can heal itself, we need a co-constructed solution. What we need now is social partnership because it is going to be down to us, the four education union general secretaries, our unions, employer organisations working in concert with government to say what kind of accountability and inspection system we need, how we build it and how we ensure our inspectorate is accountable to the profession and to Parliament.
"That is what will signal the fundamental change we are calling for and which would give the profession the confidence it needs.”
