The role and performance of Ofsted

Memorandum submitted by Christopher Thomson, Principal, Brighton Hove & Sussex Sixth Form College

1.  I'd assume that the Government has a duty to exercise a reasonable degree of care to ensure the education system (to confine my response just to that strand of Ofsted's work) delivers the content it's supposed to, to the standard it ought to.

2. The enquiry should go back to fundamental first principles and ask not 'what tweaking is needed in order to adjust what's already under way?' but 'If we were starting from scratch, what would we design?'

3. The reasons for a fundamental review are (i) the economic crisis, (ii) the bureaucracy-busting agenda and (iii) the development over the last decade of reliable performance measures (in some areas of Ofsted's work)

4.  The enquiry should ensure that:

(i)   nothing is done more expensively by Ofsted that could be done adequately and cheaper by some other

      means and/or agency;

(ii)  Ofsted's entire manner of working is consonant with the present hard times, ie. the leanest possible regime;

(iii)  There is no duplication (for example overlap between the roles of LEA, Ofsted and FFE)

5.  The enquiry should be prepared to examine Ofsted's work in discrete strands - for example separating the question of what its role should be in respect of schools from what its role should be in respect of Sixth Form Colleges. This will increase the likelihood of developing conclusions which are (i) more economical and (ii) fitter (than otherwise) for purpose.

September 2010