Earlier this year Ofsted published ‘Ofsted’s areas of research interest’ document. It emphasised the importance of research evidence in its work and stated rightly that ‘evidence underpins all of our work as a regulator and inspectorate’

Yesterday, I co-hosted a virtual conference considering the outcomes from an independent post-inspection survey report published earlier in the week. This report revealed a number of deeply disturbing findings, of which the main headlines were:

• Almost 70% expressed negative views on Ofsted’s impact on headteacher’s well-being including eight who stated that they had decided to retire before another Ofsted inspection.
• Two thirds (64%) did not see the new framework as an improvement on the previous one.
• Only half (53%) thought that “The ratings given in the report were fair”.
• Only two out of five (39%) found the advice they received valuable.
• Just 42% agreed that the inspection process was supportive.
• 82% disagreed that “I spent just a little time preparing for the inspection”
• Only 30% agreed that the inspection had positively impacted their institution.
• Just a quarter thought that their career had been positively impacted.

These are shocking outcomes and were rightly raised by members of the Education Select Committee when the Chief Inspector sat before them on Tuesday. Any leader of an organisation with these outcomes would respond with urgency and would present a plan of action to ameliorate the issues. The response was clear that Ofsted had set up a review process that will publish its findings in 2027! Yep, next year. Some changes (I would call them tweaks) are to be introduced in September, but there is no evaluation evidence in the public domain to explain why these tweaks are necessary.

The areas of research interest document makes clear that its purpose is to:
‘highlight our evidence needs to the research community, encouraging others to run independent studies and contribute evidence (in the form of existing, published and ongoing research) that can inform our understanding and address gaps in knowledge’. We sent the findings of our research to Ofsted ahead of its publication. The Chair of its Board acknowledged its receipt, but no one in the inspectorate has even thanked us for sharing it.

Ofsted is revealing a closed mentality to research that is uncomfortable. If it were serious about improving the new Framework it would at least acknowledge our research and bring forward an interim evaluation of its effectiveness and impact. I suspect the responses they are receiving to their own post-inspection surveys may well be similar to ours. If that is the case, then they are not serious about tackling staff wellbeing and are more concerned with delivering a certain number of inspections in a given period of time. I’m old enough to remember a TV series in the late 60’s called ‘Never mind the quality feel the width?’ Seems apposite.