Local authorities will no longer be given an overall judgement of their school improvement functions, Ofsted has said in a framework released this morning.
Instead, a narrative judgement will be published for local authorities, describing Ofsted’s findings after an inspection.
Ofsted said that the removal of the effective/ineffective assessment was because “configurations of school improvement functions are very diverse and relevant to loca circumstances.
“A more granulated judgement is more appropriate and more helpful to local authorities.”
The new framework also sees the inspection process for local authority school improvement functions brought more into line with how Ofsted carries out focused inspections of academy trusts.
Ofsted will now carry out two week inspections of local authorities. The first week will include a “focused inspection activity” in which a number of section 5 and, in some cases, section 8 inspections of maintained schools within the local authority area will be carried out, together with a telephone survey of schools not under inspection. The second week will consist of an on-site inspection of the local authority.
The inspectorate said that this would provide inspectors with a broader evidence base and would reduce the burden on local authorities.
The inspection framework replaces one published in May 2013, and follows consultation with local authorities.
See next edition of Schools Week, dated Friday, November 14, for reaction and further analysis of the new framework.
It would be interesting to get the view of one of the bodies that ‘represents’ LAs, as to how they feel this affects them. For example the the LGA (http://www.local.gov.uk/) or the NCER (https://www.ncer.org)
This is an appropriate response given the obstacles Ofsted faces in inspecting Academy chains for school improvement functions.
I believe all Academy chains and LAs should have a common scrutiny framework.
We really need a third tier in education management and any future governments will need to take steps to promote this to ensure adequate numbers of pupil places, proper support for schools, local accountability.