Almost two thirds of teachers say Ofsted makes them mentally ill
‘There is no way you can make everyone perfectly happy and protect the interests of children’
‘No amount of rebranding will eradicate the view that Ofsted’s days are numbered’
ALMOST two thirds of teachers believe the Ofsted system causes them mental ill-health, a union survey has found.
Meanwhile more than half of respondents to a National Education Union (NEU) poll of state school teachers in England said the inspection body affected their home life.
The findings were released on the first day of the NEU’S annual conference in Bournemouth – where teachers will vote on whether the NEU, the largest teaching union in the UK, should lobby political parties ahead of the next general election to endorse its campaign to “replace Ofsted”.
It is the first NEU conference held since the inquest of primary school headteacher Ruth Perry, who took her own life after Ofsted downgraded her school from “outstanding” to “inadequate”. A coroner went on to rule that the Ofsted inspection had “contributed” to her suicide in January 2023.
Last week former Ofsted chief inspector, Amanda Spielman, defended decisions made during the crisis.
Speaking on Rachel Johnson’s Difficult Women podcast, Ms Spielman said the watchdog has to give out “tough messages” even if it upsets people.
“It’s the same for all inspectorates, they are there to protect the interests of users; in the case of Ofsted, that’s the children", Ms Spielman said.
She added: “Sometimes, it’s like a doctor – sometimes a doctor has to give you a difficult diagnosis and you cannot not be upset by it, however kindly and sympathetically they give it to you. It’s the same for Ofsted inspectors, there are times when they have to give people really tough messages.”
Speaking on the episode, which was first broadcast on Sunday, Ms Spielman also said that people are “incredibly unwilling to acknowledge” that there is “no possible way that you can ever make everyone perfectly happy and totally protect the interests of children”.
Professor Julia Waters, the sister of Mrs Perry, is due to address the NEU’S annual conference on Friday. Nine in 10 of the 4,500 respondents to the NEU poll said they do not believe single-word judgments are a fair reflection of the performance of a school.
In total, 62 per cent of participants felt the inspection system caused them mental ill-health and 59 per cent said it affects their home life. A motion, due to be debated today, says the union should support members in “balloting for, and taking, strike action” when “mocksteds”, deep-dives and excessive workload have arisen through Ofsted pressures.
The survey, carried out between Feb 6 and 20, suggested that only 3 per cent of teachers believe Ofsted acts as a “reliable and trusted arbiter of standards” and just 4 per cent think it acts independently of Government. More than four in five (82 per cent) agreed with a statement that Ofsted has so many problems that it “would be better to start afresh with a new system of inspection”.
Daniel Kebede, joint general secretary of the NEU, said: “Ofsted is out of touch and out of favour. As this survey shows, the inspectorate’s reputation has worsened since we last sought members’ views in 2022. No amount of rebranding will eradicate the entrenched view that Ofsted’s days are numbered. If it ever commanded respect, those days are now long gone.”
An Ofsted spokesman said: “We inspect schools on behalf of children and their parents, but we are very mindful of the pressures on school staff. We have already made several changes to inspection over the last year, focused on school leaders’ and staff welfare.”
A Department for Education spokesman said: “Our plan to ensure every child benefits from a world-class education is working with 90 per cent of schools now judged to be good or outstanding, up from 68 per cent in 2010. Ofsted is central to driving forward that improvement.”