Parentkind presents parents’ views on school inspections to the Education Select Committee and other bodies
When it comes to school inspections, politicians and various education bodies are keen to understand how parents feel about the current system. Their views are important because parents are arguably the main audience for the school inspection reports published by Ofsted, the inspection body for England. Organisations increasingly turn to Parentkind to better understand parents’ views. Following the tragic death of Headteacher Ruth Perry after her school was inspected, school inspections have fallen increasingly under the spotlight.
To support various stakeholders looking for a parental perspective on school inspections and Ofsted, Parentkind polled parents earlier in the year. Our Chief Executive, Jason Elsom, joined the board of the National Education Union’s “Beyond Ofsted Inquiry”, and contributed to panel discussions on school inspections at both the Conservative and Labour Party conferences this autumn. These engagements had yielded opportunities for Parentkind’s work and substantial research bank of parent voice to be brought to the wider attention of MPs and other education stakeholders. Following our written submission to the Education Select Committee, Jason was invited to give evidence to the Committee in person on October 17th at the Houses of Parliament. It provided a further opportunity to share parents’ views on Ofsted with policymakers.
What is the Education Select Committee?
The Education Select Committee is a group of MPs from across different political parties who work together, mostly to scrutinise the work of the Department for Education. They hold inquiries on subjects such as ‘Ofsted’s work with schools’, and invite evidence to be submitted to shed light on the questions they have raised. They also invite witnesses who have the relevant expertise to come and answer MPs’ questions to ensure that they consider both written and oral evidence. Once they have heard from everybody they think can assist with their inquiry, they write a report. These publicly available documents often include recommendations for government. Although the government isn’t obligated to act on the Education Committee’s recommendations, the group is influential and often effective at holding ministers and civil servants to account by highlighting areas of weakness. The purpose of the inquiries is to ensure that the state-funded education system in England is as good as it can be to benefit the learning and wellbeing of the nation’s children.
Parentkind responds to the Committee’s call for evidence and is invited to appear as a witness
Parentkind’s written evidence based on what parents told us in the poll was accepted by the Committee as part of their inquiry into Ofsted’s work with schools. It was published on the committee’s website. Shortly afterwards, a formal invitation asked Chief Executive Jason Elsom to join MPs as part of a panel for an oral evidence session.
Answering MPs’ questions at the Education Committee’s inquiry
Jason joined a panel of education experts to represent parents’ views on Ofsted to MPs. The first part of the session heard from the teaching unions ASCL, NAHT and the NEU. Each spoke about the negative impact of Ofsted inspections on teacher wellbeing, as well as on staff recruitment and retention.
The second panel featured Parentkind. Views from school governors were represented by the National Governance Association (NGA). The Confederation of School Trusts (CST) spoke on behalf of school trusts in England. The Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition, an umbrella group of organisations campaigning to promote children’s mental health, provided a perspective of the impact of school inspections from a child’s point of view.
Parentkind delivers parent voice evidence to MPs
Parentkind’s Chief Executive gave MPs an overview of the findings from the Ofsted poll in which 819 parents had taken the time to give their views. His focus was on how Ofsted can better meet the needs of parents. On the usefulness of Ofsted reports, he told MPs that parents generally do not consider a school’s latest Ofsted inspection to be the most important factor when selecting a school for their child. Instead, they prioritise factors such as the school offering a broad and balanced curriculum, its reputation, the ease of travel to the school and the views of parents who have a child at the school. The latest Ofsted report came much further down the list. He also said that parents tend not to agree with the single-word judgments (‘Outstanding’, ‘Good’, ‘Requires Improvement’ and ‘Inadequate’) because they do not tell the whole story about a school’s merits. When parents have not had a good experience of school, they tend to view Ofsted less favourably. He advised that the new Chief Inspector of Schools should look to improve the relationship between Ofsted and parents. Later, he suggested that although parents generally want to be consulted by Ofsted, only a minority said they had been. The research suggests that parents want to be more involved in the inspection process.
What happens next?
The evidence that Parentkind and others presented on the day will be considered by the Committee. At the conclusion of the Committee’s inquiry, once they have heard from stakeholders offering a range of perspectives on Ofsted, they will produce a report. This is likely to have recommendations for government on how the schools inspectorate can provide the best service for the whole school community.
Parentkind will be interested to see if the parent voice research we presented in both written and oral evidence influences the Committee’s report. Presenting parents’ views directly to parliamentarians ensures that, whatever the outcome of the report, parental opinion about Ofsted has been heard and considered by decision-makers.
