{"id":790152,"date":"2026-10-03T00:16:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T00:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/790152\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T00:16:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T00:16:08","slug":"england-school-inspections-to-be-overhauled-again-after-barrage-of-complaints-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/790152\/","title":{"rendered":"England school inspections to be overhauled again after barrage of complaints | Schools"},"content":{"rendered":"

School inspections in England<\/a> will be overhauled for the second time in a year, after a barrage of complaints that the new system was dangerously stressful and damaging teachers\u2019 mental health.<\/p>\n

Lucy Powell, the education secretary, will tell the schools regulator Ofsted to \u201cgo back to the drawing board\u201d after becoming concerned that inspection changes overseen by her predecessor, Bridget Phillipson, were creating problems for headteachers.<\/p>\n

Sources say Powell does not want to scrap the new system of ratings, which score schools from \u201cexceptional\u201d to needing \u201curgent improvement\u201d in six key areas, but she does want inspectors to take greater account of the social and economic background of each school and its pupils.<\/p>\n

Powell\u2019s changes, which will be communicated to Ofsted in the coming weeks, will be the second set of major alterations to the school inspection regime in just over a year, after Labour\u2019s election manifesto pledge to replace the previous inspection framework in the wake of the death of the headteacher Ruth Perry<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One source said: \u201cShe wants Ofsted<\/a> to go back to the drawing board when it comes to measuring inclusion in particular. That\u2019s where most of the problems seem to lie.\u201d<\/p>\n

Powell\u2019s changes will mean a significant shift from those carried out by Phillipson, who is now equalities minister and party chair.<\/p>\n

The two MPs fought an occasionally bitter contest to become Labour\u2019s deputy leader last year, during which allies of each traded insults and accusations. Andy Burnham promoted Powell, a long-term ally, to Phillipson\u2019s job as education secretary when he entered Downing Street earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Powell told an event at last week\u2019s Labour party conference: \u201cI want to see a much stronger emphasis in the current inspection regime on context, much stronger than it is at the moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is one of those areas that it\u2019s not straightforward to sort of move the oil tanker around massively quickly, but we absolutely do need to see reforms there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lucy Powell on stage with Andy Burnham at the Labour party conference. Photograph: Victoria Jones\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Ofsted declined to comment. The inspectorate has commissioned its own independent evaluation of the new framework, with an interim report due out later this year.<\/p>\n

Paul Whiteman, the general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said he was encouraged that ministers were listening to the criticism of inspections being raised by parents and experts as well as teachers.<\/p>\n

Whiteman said: \u201cWe have serious concerns about fairness and comparability. Schools<\/a> serve very different communities and face very different levels of challenge. Leaders working in areas of greater disadvantage, or with higher numbers of pupils with special educational needs (Send) and disabilities, must not be placed at a systemic disadvantage by an inspection framework that fails to properly reflect those contexts.<\/p>\n

\u201cInspection should take account of the circumstances in which schools are operating, while recognising the tremendous work many are doing to support children facing the greatest barriers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a need for an inspection system that is rigorous and proportionate and which genuinely supports school improvement.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new \u201creport card\u201d system came into force last year<\/a>, replacing Ofsted\u2019s headline inspection grades of \u201coutstanding\u201d to \u201cinadequate\u201d, with a more detailed system intended to put less pressure on schools.<\/p>\n

The new system was initially welcomed by teachers, though criticised by others who warned it would make it harder for parents to judge a school.<\/p>\n

Since its implementation however, the regime has been met with a flurry of complaints from school leaders, who say it is harming their mental health and creating greater stress than the system it replaced.<\/p>\n

Perry\u2019s sister, Prof Julia Waters, said last month that she had been contacted<\/a> by at least a dozen teachers left \u201cfeeling suicidal\u201d by Ofsted inspections, and raised her concerns in a letter to the prime minister.<\/p>\n

Amanda Hulme, the headteacher of Claypool primary school in Bolton, told the Guardian<\/a> last month that her most recent Ofsted inspection was the most stressful experience of her career.<\/p>\n

Unions have called for teachers to be given \u201curgent relief\u201d from the new system, while some want Ofsted to stop grading their schools altogether.<\/p>\n

A survey of school staff<\/a> inspected under the new regime found that two-thirds said it was as bad or worse than the framework it had replaced. The survey of National Education Union members also found that three out of four said the inspections had negatively affected their mental health, with one primary school teacher describing it as \u201ca circle of stress and fear\u201d.<\/p>\n

Powell is understood to be concerned that schools in more \u201cchallenging\u201d contexts are doing worse under the new system.<\/p>\n

A recent study by the former Ofsted inspector Steve Wren found schools with higher levels of children receiving free school meals (a key test of poverty) or Send support were receiving lower ratings than average.<\/p>\n

Wren also found that ratings for secondary schools were closely correlated with how well pupils had performed before they joined the school, suggesting inspectors were not taking sufficient account of previous attainment levels.<\/p>\n

Wren said in his analysis: \u201cDo these grades represent the reality that secondary schools with lower prior attainment are doing a markedly worse job of educating their pupils, or is the framework biased against them, or are inspectors not skilled at spotting strengths in such contexts?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"School inspections in England will be overhauled for the second time in a year, after a barrage of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":790153,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-790152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=790152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/790153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=790152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=790152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=790152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}