Ofsted’s plans to reform inspections ‘will continue to enable discrimination’

Disabled campaigners have raised serious concerns about plans by the education watchdog to reform the way it inspects and assesses schools.

Ofsted promised this week to place more “focus and scrutiny” on how schools in England meet the needs of disabled children, following a public consultation that was heavily critical of its current approach.

But although The Alliance for Inclusive Education yesterday (Wednesday) welcomed the proposed changes to the inspection system, it also said Ofsted needed to do far more to address the systemic discrimination faced by disabled children and young people.

It warned that the changes proposed by Ofsted would allow the education system to “continue to enable discriminatory practices that allow schools to exclude disabled children and young people, rather than taking meaningful action to support their inclusion”.

The largest consultation in the education watchdog’s history resulted in widespread criticism of its failure to hold schools and other education and skills providers to account for the quality of their special educational needs and disability (SEND) provision.

Only about half of respondents agreed that Ofsted currently holds providers to account on SEND provision.

Parents said its inspections do not scrutinise SEND closely enough, and that schools that were failing children with SEND should be rated as failing overall.

Ofsted is the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills, and it inspects services that provide education and skills for learners of all ages in England, as well as inspecting and regulating services that care for children and learners.

In its report on the consultation, Ofsted said respondents had called for schools to be praised for “inclusivity” and for measuring disabled children’s progress based on their individual starting points “rather than solely on their academic outcomes”.

Ofsted’s reports on schools should show how they ensure disabled pupils and others with SEND are included in all aspects of school life, the regulator was told.

Nearly three-fifths of respondents (58 per cent) believed that mainstream schools suspend, off-roll or place off-site pupils with SEND as an “unintended consequence” of Ofsted inspections.

Ofsted describes off-rolling as removing a child from a school’s list of pupils without permanently excluding them, “when the removal is primarily in the best interests of the school, rather than in the best interests of the pupil”.

This includes pressuring a parent to remove their child from a school.

Respondents also called on Ofsted to improve how it engages with disabled pupils, their parents and school staff, and to produce more “nuanced and detailed” evaluations of SEND provision.

And they described the current inspection system as “overly politicised, outdated, and ineffective in addressing the needs of children and learners with SEND”.

Many of those who took part in the consultation called on Ofsted to consider the impact of funding restrictions on the availability and quality of specialist support staff, and the level of support and services provided by local authorities.

As a response to the consultation, Ofsted promised to introduce a “report card” from next September that would provide a “more nuanced and detailed” assessment of how schools and other providers are performing.

Education secretary Bridget Phillipson announced this week that the current single-word headline grade for schools will be removed from inspections from this month.

As part of these changes, Ofsted will consult early next year on its new “specific focus” on inclusion in report cards.

It promised to put disabled children and others with special educational needs (SEN) and from disadvantaged backgrounds at “the heart” of its reforms.

But ALLFIE’s chair, Navin Kikabhai, said it was about time Ofsted “seriously engaged” with disabled children and young people and recognised their diversity, and framed their mainstream experiences “within a context of rights and entitlements to inclusive education”.

He also called on Ofsted to introduce measures that would assess its own policies, culture, practices and staff diversity.

He said: “For far too long, disabled children and young people and individuals labelled as having SEN have been framed within a deficit-needs-based system that has all too often led to their systematic exclusion into segregated provision.

“We remain deeply concerned about the harmful approach that persists.

“This is an education system rooted in grouping and ranking children which perpetuates societal inequalities and discrimination.”

He also said ALLFIE was disappointed that Ofsted and the Department for Education had not worked with disabled people’s organisations to develop a system “rooted in the foundation of inclusive education as defined by the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD)”.

He said: “This was a missed opportunity to deliver on the government’s obligation under the UNCRPD to progressively realise the right of disabled people to mainstream education as a human right.”

ALLFIE’s goal of creating an inclusive and equitable educational system for every child is outlined in its Inclusive Education for All manifesto.

Ofsted received more than 20,000 responses to its open online consultation, including more than 4,000 from children, while independent researchers commissioned by Ofsted surveyed another 8,000 parents and members of the public, and more than 7,000 professionals working across education and children’s social care.

Ofsted admitted that last year’s death of head teacher Ruth Perry – who took her own life after learning her primary school was to be branded “inadequate” by Ofsted – was the “catalyst” for the changes.

Sir Martyn Oliver, Ofsted’s chief inspector, said: “This is the beginning of a new chapter for Ofsted as we reset our priorities, refine our practices and rebuild our relationships.

“We want to retain the confidence of the children, parents and carers we work for, and regain the respect of the committed professionals we work with.

“The tragic death of Ruth Perry was a catalyst for this change, but the case for change has been building for years.

“We recognise the growing challenges facing education and social care, particularly since the pandemic. We don’t want to add to this pressure.

“Many of the changes we are introducing are aimed at reducing the pressure on those we inspect.”

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