Agenda item

13:00

 

Education Scrutiny Committee has invited Chris Russell, Ofsted Regional Director for the South East, to attend the meeting for a Question & Answer Session. This follows the publication of a new Education inspection framework by Ofsted for consultation in January 2019, which is proposed to be implemented from September 2019 onward.

 

Questions will be planned by the Committee in advance and communicated to Mr Russell ahead of the meeting.

 

The Committee welcomes this opportunity and extends its thanks to Mr Russell for committing his time to attend.

 

The Ofsted Regional Director for the South East, Mr Chris Russell, attended the Meeting for a question and answer session following the publication of a new Education inspection framework by Ofsted which went out to consultation in January 2019 with a view to being implemented from September 2019 onward.

 

The Questions had been planned by the Committee and communicated to Mr. Russell ahead of the Meeting.  Mr. Russell thanked the Committee for the notice of the questions and for the opportunity to come and speak to the Committee.  Set out below are the questions and answers given during the session:

 

“In view of Ofsted's focus on the progress made by disadvantaged pupils, are you able to signpost us to a comparable county LA not necessarily in the South East where there have been good gains in this area since 2016?"

 

“It is very difficult to point you to a comparable authority as the issues around disadvantaged pupils are different in different areas and each authority has its own unique set of problems. In terms of authorities where they have tackled this issue and had gains, whilst some authorities had had gains, those had not always been sustainable, so the best way forward was to identify specific problems and focus on tackling those.   Ofsted would be happy to support where they can on any conferences on this issue. HMI Sarah Hubbard has very close links with Oxfordshire and would be happy to support you.

 

The Local Authority interactive tool is a free tool which allows you to analyse data and look at authorities that have closed the gap and that you believe are similar to yours.

 

“We've seen the changes in Framework in terms of time frame from the first call announcing an inspection, and we're concerned about the impact of this on schools. Can you explain what evidence Ofsted’s rational for the change, especially in terms of the initial contact with a school.”

 

We are consulting on the new framework currently, but these proposals are draft, and we are very much looking and listening to the responses we are receiving.  It is not however, really a change in the notice period.   The difference is that we are proposing on-site planning, instead of being at home ringing the school, we will be in the school, able to ask questions, but we will not be going around the school collecting evidence.  However, I can totally understand how the school would feel like the new proposals feel like there is no notice and issues such as Head teachers being away from the school or teaching are real issues.  This proposal has been universally unpopular, and we will be listening to the responses.

 

“Schools have commented that they have not had much opportunity to produce the in-house, cohort specific data during the inspection and with some of our small schools where we have cohort specific swings this has been a concern.”

 

The proposals we are consulting on at the moment suggest that we don’t look at school’s internal data but gather evidence from elsewhere.  This has received a mixed response, our concern is that if we focus on internal data it creates more and we try to do our bit to reduce teacher’s workload.

 

“In the PowerPoint on the consultation (Slide 34) it states that Ofsted aims to reduce workload, looking at how leaders engage with and manage staff, taking account of the main pressures on them, including workload. Can you explain what evidence will look for to see that workload will reduce?”

 

The honest answer to that is we don’t know yet as we are piloting and trying structures out, so I think the methodology around that will evolve, but certainly not looking at the data should take some of the pressure off.   If we did look at that data, it would be in terns of how you are doing whether it was too onerous etc.  There will be more discussions with schools to make sure it is not overloading staff and that schools are coping with the different priorities and to check that schools are takleing the issue of balance of workload.  The last thing we want to do is to contribute to the large workload of teachers.

 

 “We're aware that Ofsted have inspected a number of Outstanding schools in Oxfordshire. We still have some that haven't been inspected for some time. Can you talk to us about how those to be inspected are identified?”

 

Due to legislation, outstanding schools are exempt from routine inspection, and that means we can’t just go in and inspect them as firstly, we would be breaking the law and secondly, we are not resourced to inspect every outstanding school.  The previous and current chief inspector have both said quite robustly that they would like to see that changed and that outstanding schools should be inspected routinely.  We need a change in the law and to be resourced properly to do that.  At the moment we inspect 10%, so we need to get the risk assessment as proportionate as we can.  The main thing that would take us into a school would be if the data showed a downwards trend in the data or complaints, but we have to have just cause to inspect.

 

The statutory framework for inspecting schools is 5 years, but in general schools that are inadequate are inspected every 30 months or before, good schools very 3 or 4 years on a reduced inspection.

 

“Are the cuts to your budget affecting Ofsted’s ability to carry out timely and thorough inspections of Oxfordshire’s schools, and can parents be confident in the rating of their child’s school?”

 

The difficult issue with outstanding schools is we can’t inspect them and speaking to heads of those schools, they wish they could be inspected as well. The government would have to agree to a change in legislation, we understand the arguments, but it is not within our control.

 

We do feel confident that we are providing reasonable assurance where we are inspecting.  However, part of the proposals out to consultation is to spend 2 days inspecting good schools which should help with that assurance.

 

“Does the Framework reflect that Ofsted is going into a Good school, still expecting it to be Good and can you comment on the question of ‘off-rolling’?”

 

I can give an assurance that when we go into a good school our starting point is that it is still a good school. It is a stance for the start of the inspection, rather than any indication of where the inspection might end.   Although we are looking at making changes in the new framework, we still want to be proportionate and start off with the view that it is a good school and that is how the methodology is working.

 

In relation to off-rolling, we have done some inspections because we have risk assessed and the data has suggested that there might be off-rolling going on. The data and insight team look at school patterns of pupil movements together with other data to identify schools and we have then inspected the school. In some cases, the schools have not been off-rolling, there have been other reasons for that mobility.

 

“Inadequate schools are often told by Ofsted that they can't employ NQTs. What happens if inspection report comes out in June and they've already employed NQTs? If a school must become an academy (and hence a new legal entity) it then doesn't have an inspection record, so then there is no bar to employing NQTs. What is Ofsted's view on that?”

 

If a school is inspected and it has already employed NQTs then those NQTs can continue to work there, all we would ask is for the school to ensure that they are adequately supported given that the school is struggling.  The legislation that underpins this has been around for a long time and pre-dates academisation and therefore does sit a bit awkwardly. Before, inadequate schools were monitored by us and when we  inspected we generally said that they could not employ NQT’s at that moment, then after the seconded or third visit if improvement was shown they would be able to appoint them.  We now have a mix of maintained and academy and we can tell maintained that you can’t employee NQTs, but we can only advise academies not to do so.  This can be difficult if the school has improved, but not due an inspection or is waiting to be academised.

 

What tends to happen though, is that schools tend to write to us and we allow them to employ NQT’s if they are supported on the proviso that if we do inspect we will look at how well they are be supported.

 

“Could you confirm whether this if for the benefit of the NQT or whether it is for the benefit of the children?”

 

It is mainly for the benefit of the NQTs so that they are not being sent into a school that was struggling.  We have had discussion with the DoE around the issue of monitoring and the employment of NQTs.

 

“How will MATs be treated in the future? For example, will all schools continue to be treated separately within a MAT/MAC in terms of inspection outcomes?”

 

At the moment the unit of inspection is the school and that is not due to change under the new Framework.  Parents are interested in the rating of their school not of the MAT. What we are doing though, is reviewing MATs by collecting school data over one or two terms, to see what that shows us and go into the back office of the MAT and write a review.

 

“If a school’s safeguarding is Inadequate and it becomes an academy, the LA is still the body responsible for safeguarding advice. How can that be right?”

 

We don’t make those rules, the rules are set down by the DoE, so unfortunately we don’t have any say over it.  The academy still has its responsibilities under the regulations, but the Local Authority does maintain its broader role in safeguarding and for the overall standards of education in the area.  However, although this does create some tensions, in my experience as Regional Director over the past few years, those tensions are much less now than they were.  Our training around Safeguarding is focusing at looking at the bigger picture.

 

“When you inspect an academy, do you look at how they exchange data and how they work in partnership and whether or not they have a good working relationship with the local authority?

 

That is not really something we would look at as part of a normal school inspection, unless we have heard of any tensions or have picked up issues during inspection and this could include a high excluding school.  Local authorities can talk to us at any time, including at the point of inspection or before.  We now have very good annual conversations with local authorities where we talk about social care and educational issues for an extended period and we can pick up those kinds of issues there, but we are being told that those issues are becoming quite a rarity.

 

“Are you picking up any tensions across the South East Region in relation to cuts and the authorities’ resources to meet their obligations in relation to safeguarding?”

 

There is no doubt that the sectors we are inspecting are feeling the pressures of funding right across the Region in MATs and children’s social care, so there is no doubt about the effect of the funding pressures.  It is what we hear about most.

 

“What role does Ofsted have in terms of re-brokering academies? In Oxfordshire there are examples where this has been slow.”

 

We rightly, have no role in this at all.  Ofsted have to remain completely independent of that process.  This is for the Regional School Commissioner.  We do share your concerns around where re-brokering is taking a long time and the school feels like its in limbo.  What we have done, to put us in the best position we can be, is to make sure that we have the most up to date intelligence possible, including our relationship with the RSC office to make sure we know where we are with each school, so if we have a school that has not been re-brokered within 9 months we will go in and undertake a monitoring visit. We do what we can under our current powers.

 

 “Given the focus on governance, can you explain the training Ofsted inspectors have around identifying good governance? How does Ofsted define good governance in the new framework?”

 

We have had various types of training around Governance over the years.  The most current training is around MAT Governance because it is a new complexity that people may not have come across before.  We will be continually updating and reviewing our training and there will be training with the new framework, some of which has started already and some of which will be carried out next term in September.

 

We have rewritten the Framework in light of MAT Governance which was missing in the old Framework.  We are in consultation, so if people have ideas on whether we have got it right or whether we could be doing anything better we would be really happy to hear those.

 

“the main thing we are concerned about as a Committee is consistency and that each team going out to inspect schools should be looking at them in the same way, so that if you sent two teams out to the same school, you would get the same result.  It is so important that schools have the assurance that they are treated the same as another school, we believe there has been some evidence in the past to the contrary.”

 

I accept that in the past we did not have enough training.  In the past our contracted inspectors were not trained by us, but by an outside provider.  We have moved a long way from that, all of those inspectors now contract to us and we train them and they all work within Regions, so answer to myself or a member of my senior team.  We have upped the amount and quality of training.  I agree with you about consistency, you are never going to get perfect consistency, as that would mean a tick list which is what we don’t want as it has to be a professional judgement, which is more of an art than a science.

 

The way to ensure consistency is through training and quality assurance.  As Regional Director for the last four years, I now hear a lot less about inconsistency.  We will continue to train on this matter and are hoping to get HMI out with Ofsted inspectors to ensure consistency and will continue to work to improve this area.

 

“Given your experience inspecting schools across the country, how are Oxfordshire schools performing in terms of maintaining a broad curriculum, including the arts, humanities and sport, and offering enrichment activities outside of the school day?”

 

The honest answer is that I can not do that very well under the current Framework. The curriculum has not been very strong in the framework as the focus has been around leadership, management and teaching.  We want to focus much more on curriculum under the new framework.  With the new framework, I will be in a much better position to talk to you about that, because it will be much more at the heart of the inspection process itself.  We had look through some of Oxfordshire’s recent reports, and what you can see is that it is more likely to be commented on in more recent reports.  At the moment we are not good at reporting on curriculum, but it should be much better in the future.

 

“What is your view on What the difference is between a broad and a balanced curriculum?”

 

Within the new framework we will be looking at what the school’s intent is around the curriculum in terms of what they are trying to achieve, what their  curriculum is and what the rationale behind it was and then we would be looking at how it was implemented and the outcomes from that and how they are developing those curriculum subjects.

 

“Where has Ofsted, which is an evidence- based organisation, got it’s evidence for moving toward Ebac as I can find no evidence in your research paper?”

 

It is part of Government policy, so it in the consultation, so please respond.

 

“Do you see a noticeable difference in terms of resources and challenges in Oxford City schools compared to rural county schools?”

 

I am not sure that I can really say that we pick that up within our inspection work.  We know funding is not a level playing field in different areas, but it is not something we pick up within our framework as to what the level of resources are, so we are unable to make grand conclusions about this.  We acknowledge that this can be an issue for small schools and that Oxfordshire has quite a few within the County.

 

“Can you tell us whether you think the new funding formula is going to make it better or worse for small pockets of deprivation within a large authority?

 

No, I cannot comment on that.  We will just go in and see whether it is working or not.

 

“In the autumn of 2017, Ofsted and Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group undertook a joint local area SEND inspection in Oxfordshire. The inspectors’ report identified significant weaknesses, including the quality and timeliness of Education Health and Care Plans. How confident are you that the statement of action is being implemented by Oxfordshire, and how is this being monitored? And could you recommend places to visit to learn how to improve?”

 

This reflects the challenges around implementing the new arrangements for local authorities.   Quite a lot of authorities are having issues and we are having to give statements of action etc.  When we were asked to give the inspections, there was no system for following them up at all and we now have a system where we go back in after about 18 months.  Those returns visits have only just started we have only done a very small handful at the moment, so it is difficult to say much about what is coming out of those.

 

In terms of looking at provision generally, all of our reports have been published, but I am not sure that we have had any that will be of interest to you, such as where we there have been issues and we have gone back and said that they have sorted them out.  When we can pool these issues together and advise around them we will.