‘Scrapping one-word Ofsted judgements shows not all bold reforms need cash’

If you were asked to name the Tory cabinet minister who had most impact during the dog-days of George Osborne’s era of austerity, it would be easy – it would almost certainly be Michael Gove.

He didn’t consider himself constrained by the lack of investment. He just got on with it, and, using a shock-and-awe approach to reform, he basically burnt the education system to the ground – and then tried to rebuild it in his and Dominic Cummings’ image.

Bridget Phillipson probably won’t thank me for drawing parallels, but it was Gove who popped into my head when I saw an embargoed press release yesterday outlining her plans to totally redesign the way Ofsted operates.

No matter the £1bn savings that Rachel Reeves’s team are apparently asking her to cut from the Department for Education’s operating budget. Phillipson and her team clearly already understand one important lesson of government: you don’t necessarily need oodles of cash to bring about change.

Of course, investment is essential in many fields – including in schools – but its absence also doesn’t mean you should be paralysed.

Parents back Labour on reforming Ofsted reports

I must make a full disclosure here: I really like Phillipson’s plans for a broad and balanced “report card” to replace the current cliff-edge Ofsted reports and I also strongly approve of her decision to get rid of one-word judgements (“outstanding”, “good”, “requires improvement”, “inadequate”) as an interim measure – with immediate effect.

I’m not alone in my support. Polling carried out by my firm Public First last year found that fully 77 per cent or parents back the idea of an Ofsted report card.

Why? We also carried out parent focus groups on the nature of Ofsted and its impact on school life and we found that parents now fully bought into the argument, long made by the profession, that the high-stakes nature of the inspection utterly distorted school life.

They understood that it was damaging to professional morale and directly contributed to an increasingly myopic focus on a small number of academic outcomes. Parents are clear that they want a broad and balanced education for their children.

This research work was carried out before the tragic case of Ruth Perry, whose suicide further increased public awareness of these issues. My informed guess is that that 77 per cent figure would be even higher today.

Reforms will boost staff morale

The reception from teachers and their representatives suggest that Phillipson’s reforms will work too. Taken with the substantial pay rise promised to teachers earlier this summer, we really ought to see a bump in professional morale.

The trick for the new Labour-run DfE and Ofsted will be to ensure thar the even bolder changes that will come with the fiercely complex report card reforms have the impact they hope they will. Serious focus will be required.

But in purely political terms, this agenda shows what is possible in terms of reforms that should have tangible results before the 2029 election; reforms that are possible even with severe fiscal constraints.

The challenge will be for other public service delivery departments to identify similarly bold, but cost-neutral policies.

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