One-word Ofsted judgements for schools to be scrapped immediately
One-word Ofsted judgements for state schools are being scrapped with immediate effect in a move that has been hailed as a “landmark moment for children”.
Previously, the education watchdog awarded one of four marks to schools it inspects: outstanding, good, requires improvement and inadequate.
From this academic year, four grades will be awarded across the existing sub-categories: quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development and leadership and management, the Department for Education (DfE) has announced.
School report cards will be introduced from September 2025, which will provide parents with a “comprehensive assessment of how schools are performing and ensure that inspections are more effective in driving improvement”, it added.
The change follows engagement with the education sector and family of headteacher Ruth Perry, who took her own life after an Ofsted report downgraded her Caversham Primary School in Reading from “outstanding” to “inadequate” over safeguarding concerns.
Last year, a coroner’s inquest found the inspection process had contributed to her death.
Ruth Perry
The DfE said “reductive” single phrase grades “fail to provide a fair and accurate assessment of overall school performance” and the change will help “break down barriers to opportunity”.
This is a central mission of the new Labour government, which has vowed to raise standards in state education and generate additional funding through a tax on private school fees.
As part of the announcement today, the government said it will prioritise improvement plans for schools identified as struggling, rather than relying on changing management.
From early 2025, regional improvement teams will be introduced to work with underperforming schools to address areas of weakness.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Ofsted rating system ‘flawed’
In cases of the most serious concern, where schools would have been rated inadequate, the government will continue to intervene.
This could include issuing an academy order, which forces maintained schools to become an academy and which may in some scenarios mean transferring to new management, the DfE said.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said: “The need for Ofsted reform to drive high and rising standards for all our children in every school is overwhelmingly clear.
Read more:
Ofsted inspections paused following headteacher’s suicide
‘Truly shocking’: Number of children excluded from school reaches record high
“The removal of headline grades is a generational reform and a landmark moment for children, parents, and teachers.”
She added that 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.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Phillipson to tackle inequality
Reforms ‘could go further’
The announcement comes as pupils return to the classroom this week.
The removal of single headline grades will apply to state schools due to be inspected this academic year, with other settings like independent schools and colleges expected to follow.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
The plans have been welcomed by teaching unions, who have long called for reform.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Headteachers, said: “We have been clear that simplistic one-word judgments are harmful and we are pleased the government has taken swift action to remove them.”
👉 Tap here to follow the Sky News Daily podcast – 20 minutes on the biggest stories every day 👈
However, NASUWT general secretary Dr Patrick Roach said while the new government has “made the right decision”, it could go further and “end the fallacy that academy conversion is the only route to securing the improvements our schools need”.
“Whilst today’s announcements are an important step in the right direction, it remains the case that in the absence of root and branch reform to fix the foundations of the broken accountability system, teachers and school leaders will continue to work in a system that remains flawed,” he said.
Watch Sky News’ The Politics Hub this evening at 7pm.
Sky News can reveal that the government has rowed back on a national compensation scheme for victims of child sexual abuse, despite it being promised under the previous Conservative administration.
Warning – this story contains references to sexual and physical abuse
A National Redress Scheme was one of 20 key recommendations made by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), but a Home Office report reveals the government has scrapped it because of the cost.
Marie, who is 71, suffered alleged sexual, physical, and emotional abuse at Greenfield House Convent in St Helens, Merseyside, between 1959 and 1962, and is still fighting for compensation.
Greenfield House Convent, where Marie says she was abused
As soon as she arrived as a six-year-old, Marie says her hair was cut off, her name changed, and she experienced regular beatings from the nuns and students.
She claims a nun instigated the violence, including when Marie was held down so that her legs were “spread-eagled” as she was sexually abused with a coat hanger.
Merseyside Police investigated claims of abuse at the convent, but in 2016, a suspect died before charges could be brought.
Marie has received an apology from the Catholic body that ran the home; she tried to sue them, but her claim was rejected because it was filed too long after the alleged abuse.
Marie, 71, is still fighting for compensation for the abuse she says she suffered as a child
In February, ministers said the law would change for victims of sexual abuse trying to sue institutions for damages, which was a recommendation from the IICSA.
Previously, people had to make a civil claim before they were 21, unless the victim could prove a fair trial could proceed despite the time lapse.
Campaigners argued for the time limit to be removed as, on average, victims wait 26 years to come forward. Changes to the 1980 Limitation Act could lead to more people making claims.
Peter Garsden, President of The Association of Child Abuse Lawyers
Civil cases ‘can take three to five years’
But Peter Garsden, president of the Association of Child Abuse Lawyers, worries that when it comes to historical abuse where the defendant is dead, institutions will still argue that it is impossible to have a fair trial and will fight to have the case thrown out of court.
Mr Garsden said it takes “between three and five years” for a civil case to get to trial.
He warned that claimants “can end up losing if you go through that process. Whereas the Redress Scheme would be quicker, much more straightforward, and much more likely to give justice to the victims”.
Victim awarded £10 compensation
Jimbo, who was a victim of abuse at St Aidan’s children’s home in Cheshire, took his case to the High Court twice and the Court of Appeal three times, but, after 13 years, all he ended up with was £10 for his bus fare to court.
Despite the Lord Justice of Appeal saying he believed that the abuse had occurred, Jimbo lost his claim because of the time limit for child sexual abuse claims to be made.
Read more from Sky News:
Call for Labour minister to resign over grooming gang remarks
PM says govt will fund further local grooming gangs inquiries if ‘needed’
Neither Marie nor Jimbo is likely to benefit from the removal of the time limit for personal injury claims, which is why Mr Garsden is calling on the government to implement a National Redress Scheme for victims of sexual abuse, as recommended by the IICSA.
Hundreds of millions paid to victims
The governments in Scotland and Northern Ireland have set up compensation schemes and paid hundreds of millions of pounds to victims.
In 2023, the then Conservative government said a similar scheme would be organised for England and Wales.
But the Home Office admitted in its Tackling Child Sexual Abuse: Progress Update that it “is not currently taking forward any further steps on the IICSA proposal for a separate, national financial redress scheme for all survivors of child sexual abuse”.
“In the current fiscal environment, this recommendation is very difficult to take forward,” it added.
For victims, the scheme was the last chance of compensation for a lifetime blighted by abuse.
“The money is about justice and about all the other people who have had to suffer this abuse,” Marie said.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business3 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway