England school inspections to be overhauled again after barrage of complaints

School inspections in England will be overhauled for the second time in a year, after a barrage of complaints that the new system was dangerously stressful and damaging teachers’ mental health.

Lucy Powell, the education secretary, will tell the schools regulator Ofsted to “go back to the drawing board” after becoming concerned that inspection changes overseen by her predecessor, Bridget Phillipson, were creating problems for headteachers.

Sources say Powell does not want to scrap the new system of ratings, which score schools from “exceptional” to needing “urgent improvement” in six key areas, but she does want inspectors to take greater account of the social and economic background of each school and its pupils.

Powell’s changes, which will be communicated to Ofsted in the coming weeks, will be the second set of major alterations to the school inspection regime in just over a year, after Labour’s election manifesto pledge to replace the previous inspection framework in the wake of the death of the headteacher Ruth Perry .

One source said: “She wants Ofsted to go back to the drawing board when it comes to measuring inclusion in particular. That’s where most of the problems seem to lie.”

Powell’s changes will mean a significant shift from those carried out by Phillipson, who is now equalities minister and party chair.

The two MPs fought an occasionally bitter contest to become Labour’s deputy leader last year, during which allies of each traded insults and accusations. Andy Burnham promoted Powell, a long-term ally, to Phillipson’s job as education secretary when he entered Downing Street earlier this year.

Powell told an event at last week’s Labour party conference: “I want to see a much stronger emphasis in the current inspection regime on context, much stronger than it is at the moment.

“I think this is one of those areas that it’s not straightforward to sort of move the oil tanker around massively quickly, but we absolutely do need to see reforms there.”

Lucy Powell on stage with Andy Burnham at the Labour party conference. Photograph: Victoria Jones/Shutterstock

Ofsted declined to comment. The inspectorate has commissioned its own independent evaluation of the new framework, with an interim report due out later this year.

Paul Whiteman, the general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said he was encouraged that ministers were listening to the criticism of inspections being raised by parents and experts as well as teachers.

Whiteman said: “We have serious concerns about fairness and comparability. Schools serve very different communities and face very different levels of challenge. Leaders working in areas of greater disadvantage, or with higher numbers of pupils with special educational needs (Send) and disabilities, must not be placed at a systemic disadvantage by an inspection framework that fails to properly reflect those contexts.

“Inspection should take account of the circumstances in which schools are operating, while recognising the tremendous work many are doing to support children facing the greatest barriers.

“There is a need for an inspection system that is rigorous and proportionate and which genuinely supports school improvement.”

The new “report card” system came into force last year , replacing Ofsted’s headline inspection grades of “outstanding” to “inadequate”, with a more detailed system intended to put less pressure on schools.

The new system was initially welcomed by teachers, though criticised by others who warned it would make it harder for parents to judge a school.

Since its implementation however, the regime has been met with a flurry of complaints from school leaders, who say it is harming their mental health and creating greater stress than the system it replaced.

Perry’s sister, Prof Julia Waters, said last month that she had been contacted by at least a dozen teachers left “feeling suicidal” by Ofsted inspections, and raised her concerns in a letter to the prime minister.

Amanda Hulme, the headteacher of Claypool primary school in Bolton, told the Guardian last month that her most recent Ofsted inspection was the most stressful experience of her career.

Unions have called for teachers to be given “urgent relief” from the new system, while some want Ofsted to stop grading their schools altogether.

A survey of school staff inspected under the new regime found that two-thirds said it was as bad or worse than the framework it had replaced. The survey of National Education Union members also found that three out of four said the inspections had negatively affected their mental health, with one primary school teacher describing it as “a circle of stress and fear”.

Powell is understood to be concerned that schools in more “challenging” contexts are doing worse under the new system.

A recent study by the former Ofsted inspector Steve Wren found schools with higher levels of children receiving free school meals (a key test of poverty) or Send support were receiving lower ratings than average.

Wren also found that ratings for secondary schools were closely correlated with how well pupils had performed before they joined the school, suggesting inspectors were not taking sufficient account of previous attainment levels.

Wren said in his analysis: “Do these grades represent the reality that secondary schools with lower prior attainment are doing a markedly worse job of educating their pupils, or is the framework biased against them, or are inspectors not skilled at spotting strengths in such contexts?”

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