All eyes are now on Ofsted’s new scorecard. While confirmation that inclusion will be part of its new framework is a step in the right direction, there is a danger it becomes just a tick-box rather than the foundation on which our education system is built.
The proposed report cards will include eight or nine evaluation areas, with “Inclusion” just one among them. This is a far cry from embedding inclusion into the bedrock of schools, and we are worried that this approach to assessing inclusion falls woefully short of the sea change needed.
Ofsted and inclusion
As part of our “Ambitious About Inclusion” programme, the , supported by the charity , has been hosting a recent series of events exploring how best to deliver inclusive practice, and the barriers that schools and communities face in making progress.
In April, we will put forward recommendations for a bold and meaningful strategy to deliver inclusion and belonging in all schools, including the wholesale longer-term transformation of the accountability framework.
Together with local teachers, school leaders, experts, and local government professionals, we have had invigorating discussions about how we should understand inclusion, what works and how the government and Ofsted can respond.
Inclusion in mainstream
Every school leader we have spoken with recognises the value of inclusive practice, and inclusion as a design principle, not a box to be scored.
All are alarmed by the sizeable number of children whose life chances are held back by a system that is not always inclusive.
We have heard repeatedly how schools pioneering a whole-school inclusive practice have been doing so in spite of, rather than because of, the Ofsted framework and current performance measures.
We hear of schools with high rates of exclusions, suspension, movement from rolls, elective home education (EHE) and other forms of lost learning, that have continued to receive “outstanding” judgements from an inspectorate that has lacked the curiosity or tools to really get under the bonnet.
And we hear of the perverse incentives that reward “gaming” to improve progress 8 scores.
New Ofsted approach
There is nothing in the new measure that allays our fears that this sort of behaviour will continue.
We welcome the secretary of state’s commitment to creating a school system that ensures high standards and in which all children belong, achieve and thrive. This is a more ambitious aim than what has gone before.
For years, education policy has prioritised academic achievement - crucial of course - but often at the expense of some children’s wellbeing and inclusion.
Ofsted has shown an institutional disinterest in why some schools welcome the most vulnerable children or children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), while others push them away - in the words of the secretary of state, “pushing problems onto others”.
SEND and education
A vital part of having an inclusive approach is taking responsibility for the academic progress of all pupils, including, and especially, the most vulnerable or disadvantaged.
All schools should educate all children who live in their communities, as the very best schools already do. The needs of all families and pupils must be addressed through coherent working with local statutory and voluntary services, with schools at the heart.
Many schools are now at crisis point, with record-high absence and exclusions, and families increasingly opting for elective home education. Inclusion has rightly become a priority for the new government, but it needs to be backed and better understood by Ofsted to implement an inclusive system void of perverse incentives.
Unmet needs
The focus only on disadvantaged pupils and pupils with SEND who attend a school, without any attention on admissions policies or practices that can push some children away to other schools, means the proposed scorecard fails to improve inclusion and, in our view, does not support the elected government’s agenda adequately enough to drive change.
Ofsted needs a better vision and deeper understanding of inclusion that moves beyond box-ticking and is something that is embedded into the fabric of schools and the wider community - and at the core of the government’s Opportunity Mission.
We don’t need a half-hearted response that changes very little. It is vital that this becomes a key focus of this consultation. Ofsted can show it has the humility to listen and change.
We have a golden opportunity not just to transform schools, but to change the life chances of all children in the community that schools serve. Let’s not miss it.
Baroness Longfield is chair of the Centre for Young Lives and a former children’s commissioner for England. Jonny Uttley is CEO of The Education Alliance, a Yorkshire-based multi-academy trust
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