Ofsted boss calls on powerful political figures in the North to lead school improvement

Sir Michael Wilshaw raised concerns about pupil performance in the North and Midlands where he said there was a lack of good schools and problems with both leadership and behaviour in the classroom.

He also warned that the current system for holding schools to account and intervening was ill defined and confusing with too many organisations involved.

In a speech yesterday Sir Michael said the country needed something more and suggested local politicians should provide it.

He added that it was for government to decide whether the plans to devolve powers to the regions should include education but called on local politicians to take the lead even if they are not granted more formal power.

He highlighted the transformation of London schools as an example. “If it can happen in London it can happen elsewhere but it won’t happen by accident or committee. Local politicians in Manchester, Newcastle, Liverpool and Leeds now need to provide leadership and drive regardless of the powers bequeathed by Whitehall.” In the same speech to the CentreForum think-tank he repeated concerns about schools standards in the North. He said there was a disproportionate number of schools that were rated as being less than good.

“Of the 16 local authorities with the poorest performing secondary schools 13 are in the North and Midlands. It is no coincidence that these regions also account for the largest proportion of schools with behaviour and leadership problems,” he said.

In the annual Ofsted report last month Yorkshire was highlighted as having the lowest proportion of schools rated as good in the country. And Sir Michael suggested a lack of political will was to blame for areas with struggling schools.

However at the time councils in the region hit back highlighting a joint initiative between 15 education authorities to help schools which are judged by Ofsted to require improvement to achieve good reports from the inspection watchdog. Councils have also highlighted the issue of not having the power to intervene at under-performing academies which are run outside of the local education authority control.

The Yorkshire Post reported that when Schools Minister Nick Gibb demanded answers of councils in areas with low primary test scores two authorities in the region - Wakefield and North East Lincolnshire - wrote back saying some of the worst performing schools were in fact academies.

And in the West Yorkshire councils bid for devolved powers it calls for councils to be able to intervene at academies which are rated as being inadequate by Ofsted. Academies are autonomous state schools which are not part of the local education authority.

The Government has created regional schools commissioners who are responsible for holding these schools to account. Sir Michael welcomed the creation of RSCs but said: “Unfortunately, their roles and how they fit with other accountability bodies isn’t always clear.” He also highlighted that councils complain that they lack influence over academies even though they are responsible for standards of education. He added: “At the moment, we have a confusing and ill-defined system of oversight and intervention.”

“Problems, inevitably, are shuffled between various agencies. This isn’t fair on parents and it certainly isn’t fair on schools

“A symptom of that confusion has been a more than doubling of complaints to Ofsted about schools in the last three years. The danger is that only those able to navigate this accountability maze will have their concerns addressed.”

He added: “Now, I am not going to argue for the return of all schools to local authority control, far from it. The rot set in in large parts of our education system because local authorities allowed too many schools to decay over many years. But it would greatly simplify matters if all schools were held to account in the same way.

“I have no doubt that commissioners will grow into their roles and my regional directors will continue to work alongside them. But, I think we are going to need something more if we are to bring about the kind of improvement we have seen in London.”