Introduction
Hello, thank you for that welcome and for the invitation to speak to you today, and thank you for all you do for some of the most vulnerable children in society.
One of my top priorities as His Majesty’s Chief Inspector is to make sure we look out for the most disadvantaged and the most vulnerable children. And that includes all of the children that you all work so hard to educate and support.
When I applied for the job, when I was appointed, and every day since, I have been clear that I am not here for business as usual. I want to make sure Ofsted is the best inspectorate and regulator it can be. That it of course calls out when things aren’t good enough and holds the right people to account on behalf of children. But that it also shines a light on some of the amazing work we see across the country to make sure children get the best start in life.
Because ultimately, children are why I do this job, they’re why everyone at Ofsted does it, and I know they’re why all of you do it too. And that’s doubly true for those of you who support the most disadvantaged children.
That’s why I’m delighted that my first conference speech of the new academic year for many of you – I know some of you operate all year round, and my first speech since we published our response to the Big Listen, is here at the NASS conference.
And it’s why I was delighted that we wrote a guest blog for the NASS website before the summer, and to see my colleagues take part in a members webinar answering your questions about the Big Listen.
Because I want you all to know, that we value your work, we want to hear your views, and most importantly, we want to make sure you can do the best possible job for the children in your schools.
The Big Listen
I’ve mentioned the Big Listen a couple of times already.
Just in case you don’t know what I’m talking about, earlier in the year, we undertook the biggest consultation in Ofsted’s history. We asked parents and carers, we asked children, and we asked professionals like you, for your views on what we do and how we do it.
And boy, did you all answer! We heard from over 20,000 people directly through our consultation, including over 4,000 children. Among those responses, were submissions from organisations like NASS, from unions, and from other groups, representing tens of thousands of their members.
On top of that, we commissioned independent research to hear from thousands more parents, professionals, members of the public, and children. We specifically targeted people and groups that sometimes go unheard, to make sure we listened to everyone, not just those with the loudest voices.
And I and my colleagues went up and down the country speaking to thousands more people at events and conferences just like this one we very deliberately attended many events which represent vulnerable children, their parents and providers like you.
We heard some positive messages, including widespread agreement that children and learners must always be our top priority.
They are and always will be.
But we also heard some tough messages.
We heard your strong opinions on inspector expertise and how well they understood the specialist settings.
We heard that our inspectors could show more care and concern for your wellbeing.
We heard concerns about the consistency of our inspections.
We heard that our frameworks could be more tailored to different types of provider, including to schools like yours.
We heard that how we handle complaints could be more open and transparent.
We heard that our feedback could be more constructive.
And we heard the frustrations and fears many of you have about the consequences the government adds to our judgements.
We know we can do better, and I promise you, we will.
And I promise you that we haven’t finished listening. We want to continue to hear from you with your ideas and suggestions for improvement, with your experiences of inspection, positive or negative, and with the amazing things you’re doing for the children in your schools, and also those of you who also operate them – residential special schools and children’s homes.
In particular, I want to make sure we hear from you when we consult on our new education framework in the new year. We want to make sure it is more tailored to different types of schools and other providers, and more considerate of their specific context. We want to make sure all schools have a strong focus on inclusion. And we’ll also be looking at introducing a section focused explicitly for specialist provision.
Your knowledge and experience will be absolutely crucial to us getting that right, so please do take part if you can.
Other big changes
As well as developing that new framework, we’re making some other big changes. You might have seen some of them in the news already.
We’re moving to a report card system to replace our judgements in education and children’s services. And we’re going to consult on a new criterion for inclusion to increase our focus on the most disadvantaged.
We’re making ‘the call’ for all routine state and independent school inspections on Mondays to make sure you know as soon as possible if you’re going to be inspected that week.
And we’re reforming how we inspect safeguarding, attendance, and off-rolling through annual reviews in the future.
Skilled inspectors
We’re also making changes specifically for schools like yours, and for the wider special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) sector.
As I’ve said, I know many of you are concerned about our inspectors’ expertise when they visit you. It was a big part of NASS’ submission to the consultation. So, we’re establishing the Ofsted Academy to improve SEND training and to recruit specialists from the sector.
It helps that we continue to receive significant numbers of applications for our His Majesty’s Inspectors (HMI) and our Ofsted inspector (OI) posts. Our last campaign for schools HMIs received nearly 500 applications, and that one wasn’t open to applicants from London or those with only secondary experience. And our last social care regulatory inspectors (SCRI) campaign had over 200 applications. This means we can be both more specific in advertising for the expertise we need, and more discerning in the people we bring in. I am particularly heartened that our new recruitment programmes are bringing HMIs and OIs from the area where Ofsted needs greater expertise, just last month I met a group of new OIs who were headteachers, executive and chief executive leaders who were from primary schools and special schools, for example. We have circa 15,000 expressions of interest for leaders to be OIs for Ofsted. I really am determined to make Ofsted an inspectorate of the system, by the system, for children and their parents/carers.
I do hope many of you will consider joining us. Ultimately, we want to make sure that no inspector goes into a school, especially a special school, without a deep understanding of what great SEND provision looks like.
Illegal schools and children not in school
We also want to work with government on unregistered and illegal schools, alternative provision, and children’s homes. Too many children are ending up in these settings, with little or no oversight of the education and care they receive. Many of these are children with SEND who require more oversight, not less. We want to make sure they are either properly registered, regulated, and inspected, or that they are closed down.
As well as those children in unregistered and illegal settings, we’re also deeply concerned about the number of children not in school. The government’s pledge to introduce a register of these children is therefore welcome, and something we have repeatedly called for.
Obviously, some of these children are in elective home education, and for some, that is the best option for them. But it cannot be right that over 100,000 children are missing education with their peers. And as the Children’s Commissioner’s recent report points out, these children are 1.5 times more likely to live in a deprived neighbourhood, 2.7 times more likely to be a child in need, and 1.4 times for likely to have SEND. More of these children need to be in school, whether that’s a mainstream school or a special school. And identifying them is the first step.
Area SEND
We’re also going to review and enhance our area SEND inspections. We’re bringing forward proposals to give local partners the breathing room to address the issues in their area, whilst still unapologetically holding all to account for the highest standards. And we will make sure our inspection activity is focused on where it will have the most positive impact for children.
While we do this review, we have held off on starting our area SEND monitoring inspections. We have continued to listen to the sector over the past few weeks about this, and I know there are some concerns. So, I do want to take this opportunity to reassure everyone that our full inspections will continue, and the pause on monitoring inspections will only affect 1 or 2 areas for a few months. We will also continue to meet with leaders in affected areas during this period of change.
Again, high standards will be at the heart of our work.
A focus on inclusion
These are just some of the nearly 200 actions we’re taking following the Big Listen. Please do go online and read the full response, it’s the start of a new chapter for Ofsted.
As you can probably tell, a lot of these actions centre around the importance of inclusion, and improvements that benefit all children.
As I’ve said, we’re going to consult on adding inclusion as a criterion to our report cards because we want to make sure schools are accessible to everyone.
We’ll want your views on how we make that work. But I am clear that inclusion means expecting the highest standards for all children, especially the disadvantaged and vulnerable – because if you get it right for them, you get it right for everyone. So, inclusion must never become an excuse for lowering expectations. We know that it is harder for schools working with the most disadvantaged and vulnerable children, but we must ensure behavioural and academic expectations remain sky high.
Education can have a transformational effect on children’s life chances. That is why we all do what we do. And it’s why we want to make sure all children get the best start and every possible opportunity.
We would also like to see how you are able to partner and collaborate with mainstream schools and other services, so that you can share your knowledge and good practice with them. In discussion with many alternative and special school leaders last week, I know that you are often the place-based convenors of services for children and their parents in communities.
Our hope is that this renewed focus can make sure parents and children have as many choices as possible in their local area. That they aren’t forced down an educational path that doesn’t work for them, simply because there were no other viable options.
And we hope that this will also allow you to focus on the children who most need your expertise and specialist support.
Thank you
Because, obviously, special schools are the best place for many children, and that will always be the case. You are all a vital part of the SEND landscape, and we want to see your sector, your schools, and your children thriving.
So, thank you for all that you do for children, and thank you for listening to me today. Now it’s my turn, so please do ask me any questions you may have.
