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I nMarch 2024, Ofsted embarked on an ambitious listening exercise named ‘The Big Listen’, aimed at engaging educators, school leaders and stakeholders across England. While the consultation was positioned as a bold initiative, many questioned whether it was structured to sidestep deeper, more fundamental questions. Alongside the publication of Ofsted’s response the following September, an independent response emerged, aptly titled the ‘Alternative Big Listen’ (ABL), conducted by two former senior HMIs (Frank Norris and Professor Colin Richards), with the support of other former HMIs – including me – and educational experts (see thealternativebiglisten. co.uk ). The ABL surveyed over 1,300 individuals in the education sector, and has provided compelling insights that call for urgent, systemic change in Ofsted’s approach to inspection. Some of its findings were stark – such as the 91% of respondents who felt that Ofsted was ‘not fit for purpose,’ and the significant 90%who perceived inconsistencies in inspections across different regions. As those overseeing the ABL noted when unveiling their final report, “ Ofsted has lost very significant levels of trust and confidence. ” The survey further highlighted how 85% of participants disagreed with the notion that the proportion of schools graded Can we fix it? If the teacher feedback from several recent listening exercises is any indication, there’s a growing desire for Ofsted to change in some fairly fundamental ways, observes Adrian Lyons ... Good or Outstanding accurately reflects the quality of the system as a whole. Additionally, 83% of respondents supported a moratorium on routine inspections, emphasising instead the need for a comprehensive review before continuing with the current inspectionmodel. These statistics reflect a shared concern – is Ofsted measuring the right metrics, and is it doing so fairly and effectively? Greater sensitivity Alongside the release of its Big Listen report, Ofsted also published a review by former Chief Inspector Dame Christine Gilbert, which examined Ofsted’s response to the tragic circumstances surrounding the inspection of Cavendish Primary School. The inquest into the incident highlighted concerns around the conduct of that inspection, which was found to have contributed to the distress and subsequent death of the school’s headteacher, Ruth Perry. The review detailed how Ofsted’s current leaders responded by attempting to instil a culture of greater sensitivity, in which all inspectors were required to regularly check in on the wellbeing of headteachers – a practice that effective inspectors were routinely performing already. Dame Christine’s report did, however, raise broader concerns surrounding Ofsted’s governance – particularly the limited role of its non-executive board in critical decision-making. She noted that HMCI is not fully accountable to the board, and that the board lacks control over Ofsted’s budget. This financial constraint has driven a high-volume ‘dominant inspection’ approach, which has in turn led to rapid staff turnover and a lack of experience among inspectors. It surely can’t be right that Ofsted’s governance is less robust than the expectations placed upon on the schools it inspects? Score cards These reports were all published in early September 2024, and were thus to some extent overshadowed by the government’s announcement that ‘Overall effectiveness’ grades for state schools would no longer form part of Ofsted’s inspections, with immediate effect. FromSeptember 2025, Ofsted reports will have evolved into ‘score cards’ – something that seems to have been generally received as a positive move. It may well be, though I do worry that we may end up with something akin to inspection reports as they existed around 2010, whereby many worthwhile judgements were required around the ‘Every Child Matters’ agenda. As schools were being judged on the ECM agenda, they had an accountability incentive – which was great. Sadly, however, inspections lacked the resources to make anything like the 31 judgements required for a secondary school with a sixth form. Consequently, many of the sub-judgements lost any meaning. As a specialist HMI at the time, my own analysis showed that unless the inspection was led by a member of the economics, business and enterprise team, the judgement on ‘ The extent to which pupils develop workplace and other skills that will contribute to their future economic wellbeing ’ would invariably be identical to the judgement for ‘ Pupils’ achievement ’. Unless something more fundamental changes at Ofsted, score cards may not be the panacea that many seem to be hoping for. I know that when in opposition, the Labour Party had been thinking about them; I just hope that Bridget Phillipson comes up with something more original than simply letting Ofsted tinker with its existing framework once again. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Adrian Lyons was one of His Majesty’s Inspectors between 2005 and 2021 and now works with MATs, teacher training providers and LAs to support education; find out more at adrianlyonsconsulting.com 51 teachwire.net/secondary O F S T E D