MP demands Ofsted reform to allow schools independent appeals

John Pugh branded Ofsted a “bloated bureaucratic beast” claiming the inspection system was “clumsy, it’s poor value for money, and it’s unaccountable”.

Speaking in the Commons, the MP for Southport said: “Ofsted verdicts shape the destiny, determine the structure, the ownership and the very survival of schools. Not to have the right to challenge such a fallible system and it clearly is a fallible system, is not only demoralising, it’s fundamentally unjust.”

His backbench Bill would establish the right of schools and academies to challenge the timing and format of school inspections and to appeal against the outcomes of such inspections and would aim to increase accountability and quality assurance in the school inspection system.

Mr Pugh said the head of Ofsted was “guaranteed celebrity status” but for schools and providers Ofsted was critical.

He said: “Preparing for Ofsted, appeasing or pacifying Ofsted is hugely important and they cast a long shadow over the entire school year, because their verdict can determine a school’s reputation, its future funding, its governance, the professional career of its staff, its ownership, indeed its very survival.”

Mr Pugh argued the country was “almost unique” in having “such a heavy duty, high stakes, expensive and unaccountable public body policing our schools”.

Many of the nations Britain sought to emulate in terms of pupil progress lacked such a “cumbersome” apparatus.

The considerable amount spent by the Government on Ofsted was a “fraction” of the amount spent by schools in “trying to insure and protect themselves from a perverse or unfair judgment from Ofsted”.

There was no peer reviewed model of school improvement, he said, adding: “Instead of that we have what can become at its worst the teaching inequivalent of the Spanish Inquisition, where careers go up in flames at the mere whiff of educational heresy.”

He went on: “Critically there’s no independent appeal on matters of substance, so this Bill seeks to give schools powers to contest an unfair judgment by appeal to independent regional panels and where disagreements remained it gives schools a right to table for inclusion in the final Ofsted report their response if they still disagree.”

Even lodging a complaint was seen as “futile, positively risky and very few actually do it”.

Mr Pugh apologised to the chamber before his speech for his “lacklustre demeanour”. He explained he had recently had a bout of winter vomiting adding: “I’m obviously anxious that I don’t have more to worry about than projecting my voice here.”

His Ofsted Inspections (Schools’ Rights of Challenge) Bill was listed for a second reading on Friday March 11, but is unlikely to become law due to a lack of Parliamentary time.