Inspectors have criticised Ofsted’s demand they complete more than six days of training ahead of the launch of new report card inspections in November, warning it is symptomatic of the “rushed” rollout of reforms.
Schools Week revealed earlier this week that Ofsted has told school inspectors they must carry out at least 27.5 hours of online training before its revised education inspection framework (EIF) is rolled out, on top of two days of in-person and live online training already announced.
Those inspecting special schools or secondaries must do more.
The watchdog said it had “put together the most comprehensive training package ever offered to inspectors for a new or renewed framework”, to “ensure the successful roll-out of inspections in November”.
But inspectors said the watchdog was asking for a “ridiculous” level of preparation in a short space of time, adding the announcement at the start of the summer holidays was symptomatic of the “rushed” rollout of the ongoing reforms.
The “underpinning skills programme” (USP) will consist of modules split between summer and autumn, and must be completed by October 29.
Inspectors will also be expected to spend nine hours reading to familiarise themselves with inspection “toolkits”.
Schools Week understands that Ofsted inspections (OIs) – serving leaders who also carry out inspections – will not be paid for the training.
One OI said while they “recognise the training is important”, the announcement of what equates to around four working days of online training at the start of the summer holiday “is not really considerate of wellbeing”.
‘Expecting a great deal’
They said leaders “reliant on Ofsted work” were already losing money with the delayed start to inspections in the autumn, and now must “provide six days [for training]”.
The inspector also voiced concerns that online, self-directed training would have a “lower impact” than other forms would.
Ofsted is “expecting a great deal from their freelance workforce”, another OI told Schools Week.
A third inspector described the amount of online training as “ridiculous”.
“We are expected to do all this training in our own time, unpaid, and have to pay for expenses for any face-to-face training.”
Former HMI Adrian Gray said OI “have effectively to pay for this themselves”.
Another current OI said they were “shocked” by the “unprecedented” scale of the online training.
‘Rushed’ timeframe
“It just creates the sense that everything is rushed,” he said. “If you compare it to the previous framework…it was introduced very slowly over a long period of time, with the odd training day here and there as people’s expertise gradually grew”.
“Whereas this is like…’here’s a massive brain dump. Off you go.'”
The current EIF – which introduced a new focus on curriculum – was brought in in September 2019. Preparation for it was described at the time as Ofsted’s “most extensive inspector training programme ever”.
Ofsted held curriculum workshops from mid-November 2018, 10 months before the framework was rolled out. The workshops delved into research on the curriculum, which it expected would inform the new EIF.
In a letter to inspectors in January 2019, Ofsted’s then-national director of education Sean Harford described having “invested…heavily in focusing your training over the last 18 months on curriculum matters”.
He said the “most extensive inspector training programme ever” would mean OI and HMI would be “fully equipped and able to inspect under the EIF 2019 with rigour, fairness and humility”.
Concerns over sector preparation
There are also concerns about how schools will prepare for new report card inspections.
Ofsted has already been criticised for reneging on its pledge to give the sector one term’s notice to get to grips with the new framework before introducing it.
It will now publish its finalised framework in early September, before introducing it in November, just weeks later.
One OI told Schools Week: “If the framework requires that much training [for inspectors], how on earth can schools be expected to get their heads around it quickly?”
Ofsted will provide a single hour-long webinar in mid-September for each type of education setting – such as state secondaries, state primaries, and special schools – to prepare them for new “report card” inspections.
Attendance will be capped, but the webinars will be available to watch back.
These will be “bolstered by face-to-face and online regional events, hosted by local providers, local authorities and partners”, says Ofsted.
But Julie McCulloch, director of strategy and policy at ASCL, blasted the webinars as “part of Ofsted’s efforts to soften the rushed timetable” for the EIF.
“A one-hour webinar on a September afternoon is going to make virtually no difference at all in terms of familiarising providers with the new system and is little more than window dressing,” she said.
She repeated ASCL’s call for Ofsted to delay the roll-out of its new framework, review its proposed five-point grading system, and “give schools and colleges a framework in which they can have confidence and a proper amount of time to prepare”.
Ofsted stressed the webinars were part of a wider engagement programme.
How different will revised framework be?
Others believe the amount of training required does not reflect the scale of the reforms, which are being implemented in response to a coroner’s ruling in 2023 that an inspection contributed to the death of headteacher Ruth Perry.
Professor Colin Richards, a former senior HMI, believes it “very unlikely” the new framework will “differ fundamentally”.
“The amount of training to be provided gives the impression of a new inspection model requiring many hours of preparation, when the reality is likely to be a tinkering of the current arrangements.”
Richards said he feared the proposed training could also hamper inspector recruitment.
Fellow former HMI Frank Norris also believes the “rushed” framework “sadly” does not differ significantly to the current one.
“It is not addressing the serious concerns the coroner expressed…following Ruth Perry’s death,” he said. “More grades, more areas to judge [but] no shift in basic inspection methodology.”
Ofsted declined to comment.
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