Single headline Ofsted judgements scrapped

Government pushes ahead with reform agenda by scrapping single headline Ofsted judgements for schools with immediate effect (Monday 2nd September 2024).

This reform paves the way for the introduction of School Report Cards from September 2025, which will provide parents with a full and comprehensive assessment of how schools are performing and ensure that inspections are more effective in driving improvement. Research by Public First for the Laidlaw Foundation in 2023 found that 77% of parents thought that report cards were a good idea.

Schools first, FE Colleges, ITPs and other Ofsted inspected institutions will follow

The removal of Ofsted‘s single headline grades will apply to state schools due to be inspected this academic year with immediate effect. The removal of single headline grades for other settings inspected by Ofsted – namely Colleges, Independent Training Providers, independent schools, early years settings, children’s social care providers, and initial teacher training – will follow.

Reductive single headline grades fail to provide a fair and accurate assessment of overall school performance across a range of areas and are supported by a minority of parents and teachers. 

What will happen this academic year with Ofsted inspections?

For inspections this academic year, parents will see four grades across the existing sub-categories: quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development and leadership & management.

The government will continue to intervene in poorly performing schools to ensure high school standards for children.

The change delivers on the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and demonstrates the Prime Minister’s commitment to improve the life chances of young people across the country.

Bridget Phillipson, Education Secretary said:

“The need for Ofsted reform to drive high and rising standards for all our children in every school is overwhelmingly clear. The removal of headline grades is a generational reform and a landmark moment for children, parents, and teachers.

“Single headline grades are low information for parents and high stakes for schools. Parents deserve a much clearer, much broader picture of how schools are performing – that’s what our report cards will provide.

“This government will make inspection a more powerful, more transparent tool for driving school improvement. We promised change, and now we are delivering.”

As part of today’s announcement, where schools are identified as struggling, government will prioritise rapidly getting plans in place to improve the education and experience of children, rather than relying purely on changing schools’ management.

From early 2025, the government will also introduce Regional Improvement Teams that will work with struggling schools to quickly and directly address areas of weakness, meeting a manifesto commitment.

The Education Secretary has already begun to reset relations with education workforces, supporting the Government’s pledge to recruit 6,500 new teachers, and reform to Ofsted marks another key milestone.

Today’s announcement follows engagement with the sector and family of headteacher Ruth Perry, after a coroner’s inquest found the Ofsted inspection process had contributed to her death.

The government will work closely with Ofsted and relevant sectors and stakeholders to ensure that the removal of headline grades is implemented smoothly.

Where necessary, in cases of the most serious concern, government will continue to intervene, including by issuing an academy order, which may in some cases mean transferring to new management. Ofsted will continue to identify these schools – which would have been graded as inadequate.

The Government also currently intervenes where a school receives two or more consecutive judgements of ‘requires improvement’ under the ‘2RI’ policy. With the exception of schools already due to convert to academies this term, this policy will change. The government will now put in place support for these schools from a high performing school, helping to drive up standards quickly.

Sector Reaction to Ofsted scrapping single headline judgements

Jason Elsom, Chief Executive of Parentkind said:

“We welcome the decision by the Secretary of State to prioritise Ofsted reform. The move to end single-word judgements as soon as practical, whilst giving due care and attention to constructing a new and sustainable accountability framework during the year ahead, is the right balance for both schools and parents. 

“Most parents understand the need for school inspection, but they want that inspection to help schools to improve as well as giving a verdict on the quality of education their children are receiving. When we spoke to parents about what was important to them, their children being happy at school was a big talking point and should not be overlooked.

“Parents have been very clear that they want to see changes to the way Ofsted reports back after visiting a school, and it is welcome to see a clear timetable being set out today for moving towards a report card that will give parents greater clarity of the performance of their children’s school. We need to make sure that we get this right for parents, as well as schools.

“There is much more we can do to include the voice of parents in Ofsted inspections and reform of our school system, and today’s announcement is a big step in the right direction.”

Paul Whiteman, General Secretary of National Association of Headteachers said:

“NAHT welcomes the decision by the government to scrap the use of over arching single word judgments from September. This is an important first step towards building a fairer, more humane approach to school inspection. We have repeatedly called for such a measure to be taken and are pleased that the government has taken swift action whilst it works towards more fundamental reform.

“Our recent report ‘re-thinking inspection’ was clear this sort of interim measure would be necessary. The current inspection model not only produces simplistic, reductive and unreliable judgements that are of little or no use to schools, or parents it does real harm to the health and wellbeing of leaders and their teams and undermines both recruitment and retention.  The decision that, moving forward, schools will no longer be described in such a crude manner is therefore very positive news. 

“We are equally pleased that the government intends to place a stronger emphasis on supporting schools to improve where they need help, rather than defaulting to heavy-handed intervention or knee-jerk changes of governance structures. 

“We would have liked the government to have gone further by also removing sub-judgements from inspections.  It will be vitally important that the grades do not end up being used as proxy measures or given any sort of elevated status.  Doing so would undermine the positive benefits of removing the headline grade, and risk maintaining the many risks and harms associated with high stakes inspection.

“We look forward to engaging with the government over the coming months as it seeks to design a fundamentally new approach to school inspection for the future.”

Daniel Kebede, General Secretary of the National Education Union, said: 

“The NEU welcomes the removal of the single headline inspection grade. The idea that you could give a verdict on a whole school in one or two words was always ridiculous. The Secretary of State for Education is right to say that single headline grades are low information for parents and high stakes for schools.

 Scrapping the headline grade is a step in the right direction. Ultimately, the NEU still thinks that Ofsted needs to be abolished and replaced. Ofsted is toxic for teachers and school leaders and no amount of rebrand or reform will help Ofsted win back the trust of the profession. We need to see Ofsted replaced with a system of accountability that fosters a culture of collaboration between all stakeholders. One that creates a culture of trust, transparency, and a shared responsibility for the quality of education”.

Pepe Di’Iasio, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said:

“Single headline grades are damaging and counterproductive, and we are delighted that they are being removed from school inspections with immediate effect. This is something that ASCL has long campaigned for along with many others in the education sector.

“The School Report Cards system that will be introduced from September 2025 has the potential to provide parents with a more rounded picture of their school’s performance.

“The big challenge now is to make sure that we get this right and that we don’t end up replacing one flawed system with another flawed system.

“It is also imperative that schools which are identified as struggling are able to access effective practical support in a timely manner. We look forward to hearing more about the government’s plan for regional improvement teams.”

Fellowship of Inspection Nominees CEO Kerry Boffey said,

“The Fellowship of Inspection Nominees (FIN) believes that the major step forward is the commitment to support institutions which are struggling. 

“FE and skills providers believe that current inspection reports are sanitised and lack either the detail about strengths or insufficient information to expand on the areas for improvement.

“Where ‘required Improvement’ (RI) has been the overall judgement, the outcome could be in sharp contrast to the learner and employer survey feedback to Ofsted, which is not published, leaving the provider feeling very unfairly represented. For providers judged RI or inadequate, improvement recommendations and support are essential, especially for independent learning providers who will need to show how they can meet them to remain trading.

“FIN will be very interested to see how the criteria and process will change in awarding grades for the sub-categories in the FE sector, but overall we would welcome the reforms being rolled out across all types of provider.”

David Hughes, Chief Executive, Association of Colleges said:

“The decision to immediately withdraw single line judgements for school inspections is a positive step forwards for schools. This response to the coroner’s report into the tragic death of Ruth Perry is an important move by the government and Ofsted ahead of the wider announcements of their plans for change following their Big Listen consultation exercise.

“There would have been a lot of support from college leaders and from parents and students for this to immediately change for colleges as well, and I look forward to hearing more from Ofsted about why that has not happened. The wider changes being announced by Ofsted will reflect its full remit – early years, schools, colleges and care – and we will ensure that the college voice is heard in the consultation that will be needed before those changes are implemented next year.”  

Jon Andrews, Head of Analysis and Director of School Performance at EPI said: 

“The end of one-word judgements is a positive first step in reforming a school accountability system that has made leadership of some of the most challenging schools even more difficult. Schools with low levels of disadvantage and high prior attainment are more likely to receive positive judgements from Ofsted and our own research shows that when schools consistently receive ratings that are less than good it is associated with an increase in teacher turnover, and an increasingly disadvantaged intake, both of which make it more difficult to reverse the negative judgement. 

 “The current accountability system creates perverse incentives, including narrowing curriculum reducing the inclusiveness of admissions practices, and removing pupils from school rolls. The government is therefore right to be looking more broadly at how school performance is measured. Our own benchmarking tool for multi-academy trusts and local authorities, which includes measures of attainment, progress, inclusion, the school workforce, and school finances could provide a blueprint for the new school report card.” 

Commenting on the government’s decision to end single-word Ofsted rulings, University and College Union (UCU) general secretary Jo Grady said:  

‘We welcome the scrapping of single-word Ofsted rulings.  UCU and our members have long argued for this, and it is a step in the right direction. We now need Labour to move further by completely abolishing Ofsted inspections. They are traumatic for all involved and should be replaced by a peer-to-peer led model that centres health and wellbeing, and will be valued by students, their families and those working in education.”