| This report comes at an important time for Ofsted, which has operated its school inspection regime for more than a decade. All schools in England have now been inspected at least twice. Ofsted and the Government must now consider whether these inspections should continue in the same form or whether Ofsted's role and remit should be re-evaluated. Equally, our aim in this report is to scrutinise the growing role of Ofsted as it expands into new areas; from the inspection of childminding and day care, through post-16 institutions to LEAs and the formidable challenge of leading the inspection of children's services under the reforms being proposed in the Children Bill.
From the evidence we have been given and our discussions with David Bell, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector (HMCI), we have attempted to judge whether Ofsted is the appropriate body to undertake the inspection of these diverse sectors, and to comment on the implementation of its recent strategic proposals, both in children's services and in school inspection and reporting. Ofsted must ensure consistency of judgement over many different types of institutions catering for a variety of age groups and it must show that its inspections are making a significant contribution to improvement.
Ofsted is now the size of a small Government department and looks set to grow again in the future as it takes on responsibility for children's services. Given the substantial public resources it consumes, Ofsted must demonstrate that its inspections represent good value for money. The efficiency of Government administration has come into sharp focus in recent months and the Committee is keenly aware of the Government's intention to make savings and to move certain departments and agencies out of London and the south east. Although we understand that Ofsted will be attempting to make efficiency savings over the coming years and that a substantial proportion of its staff are already located outside London, we are surprised that it has only recently published a review of the impact, use and influence of its work in relation to the resources it consumes. We welcome this review document, but we urge the inspectorate to follow it up with a more rigorous evaluation of its contribution and proposals for the future. After over a decade of existence, Ofsted can claim to be an important influence in the minds of parents, teachers and of the Government. It must now show that it is making the most of this influence.
HMCI has told us of his view that inspection leads to improvement. Whilst the past decade has seen a significant improvement in school standards, we are concerned that the negative judgement bestowed on failing schools by a critical Ofsted report leaves some schools unable to attract high-achieving pupils or well qualified staff, making the task of improvement even more difficult. The value of inspection is diminished if it is not coupled with advice. Whilst it is very important that Ofsted continues to identify schools that are not offering an adequate education, the Government should ensure that schools which receive negative Ofsted reports are guaranteed to receive support from LEAs as well as other agencies such as the local Learning and Skills Council (LSC), giving failing schools a real opportunity to improve.
We are also concerned that Ofsted reports sometimes provide an outdated assessment of a school, which may have achieved significant improvement since its last inspection. When championing its reports as a source of information for parents and others, Ofsted should not disguise the limitations of the inspection process, which can only provide a snapshot of a school's development at one particular time.
The recent confusion surrounding the definition of 'satisfactory' teaching is to be regretted. It has caused ill-feeling towards the inspectorate on the part of teachers and schools. We consider that Ofsted has now clarified what is expected of schools in terms of 'satisfactory' teaching. We hope that Ofsted has learnt from this experience that schools and school staff need to know exactly what is expected of them and the criteria against which they will be measured.
The proposals for a 'new relationship with schools', discussed in detail in this report, appear to us a welcome development, especially as they are intended to alleviate pressure on schools to spend an extended period preparing for inspection. The new inspection regime proposed by Ofsted responds to many of the deficiencies of the current system that we have identified in recent years. However, the central role of self-evaluation needs to be carefully developed in order to function effectively and much work remains to be done in developing consistent grading structures across different institutional inspections.
Ofsted's expansion into children's services must be carefully implemented and monitored to ensure that there does not come a point at which Ofsted becomes too large to be managed effectively as single organisation. As HMCI has recognised, Ofsted's future role as lead inspectorate for children's services is a weighty responsibility. In order to function effectively, it must create the appropriate organisational structures for this new task.
An important consideration in the inspection of children's services will be the promotion of social inclusion. In this context, Ofsted should look to the profile of its own staff, which currently displays very limited diversity.
This Committee has campaigned for some time for changes to the legal structure surrounding complaints against childcare providers. In the past, it has been difficult for parents to access information about the outcome of their complaint, due to legal non-disclosure constraints. We welcome the recent developments that allow Ofsted to share information more widely in the case of complaints against childcare providers. We urge HMCI to pursue his discussions with the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) on the possibility of changing legal regulations so that information on complaints is routinely recorded and included in inspection reports.
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