Examination of Witnesses (Questions 80-87)
MR DAVID
BELL, MRS
MIRIAM ROSEN,
MR ROBERT
GREEN, MR
MAURICE SMITH
AND MR
JONATHAN THOMPSON
16 MARCH 2005
Q80 Chairman: Last question, Jonathan
Thompson. One thing puzzles me. If someone said to me in my constituency
or in the media or wherever "You are supposed to check on
Ofsted, aren't you, as the Select Committee? What are its finances
like?" how do we know that someone is not putting lots of
money in a Swiss bank account or that there is not a precarious
Enron situation going on? How would I know that?
Mr Thompson: You would know that,
Chairman, by the reports of the National Audit Office. We are
audited by the National Audit Office and produce an annual report
that goes to an audit committee, which is chaired by a non-executive
director, who challenges all five of us about particular issues
and is publicly available.
Q81 Chairman: What is the situation?
Is it a good financial situation? You are saving all this money,
you are building up balances. The taxpayer will be able to get
some back soon, surely?
Mr Thompson: The taxpayer is reducing,
if you like, the amount of money that we have available. Forty-two
million pounds is the savings target we have to reach. The situation
at the moment is that we are well above £30 million but we
still have some further work to do to reach the full savings target.
Q82 Chairman: That is genuine savings?
It is not robbing Peter to pay Paul, putting a bit back in the
DfES, putting a bit over here, sending some off to Bristol?
Mr Thompson: The real situation
is that we need to reduce our costs from over £220 million
down to £192 million, so there is real cash saving, but quite
what happens to that is obviously not a matter for us.
Q83 Chairman: Do you consider your organisation
a well paid profession? Are you well remunerated?
Mr Thompson: I am very happy with
my own remuneration.
Q84 Chairman: Not just the chiefs—what
about the Indians? Let me just give you an example of why I asked
the question. Does it not embarrass some of your inspectors when
they go to early years settings and you do a report and you have
early years people there on very little, minimum wage, not very
much training, on tiny salaries, yet they are looking after the
most precious commodity or resource of our country, our little
children? It must be embarrassing for someone on an Ofsted salary
to actually go to those settings and see those people working
a long day, doing a wonderful job, on tiny salaries. Does that
worry you?
Mr Smith: Yes. The relationship
between the pay of the inspector and the pay of the staff whom
they are inspecting is an interesting insight.
Q85 Chairman: It is dramatic, is it not?
Mr Smith: There is also quite
a differential between the pay of different inspectors, and that
is a very interesting challenge for us as an organisation. I think
you might be surprised at the pay rates of child care inspectors.
Q86 Chairman: That does not impress me
very much, in that you have not answered the question about how
you feel about the quality of pay in early years settings.
Mr Smith: The pay for the most
junior staff in early years settings, particularly in the private
and voluntary sector, is often set at minimum wage.
Q87 Chairman: We will finish on that
note. Chief inspector, any last word before you go?
Mr Bell: Thank you very much,
Chairman, for treating us so courteously again this morning.
Chairman: God willing and the electorate
compliant, we hope to see you again soon.
| 
