Warning lights in DfE and Ofsted marriage
Are Ofsted and the Department for Education having serious relationship problems? Evidence of tense exchanges arrives with an internal DfE document in which the relationship is described as in a state of “amber/red”.
This is the first of two unpublished DfE reports to feature in this column, in what could be a happy new year for leak fans.
The first paper, dated 5 December 2014, suggests Ofsted is becoming reluctant to share important information with the DfE because of concerns about it being leaked to the media. And the DfE is unhappy about it.
The DfE document, marked “*Official Sensitive*”, lists the state of the department’s relationship with Ofsted as “amber/red”: the second-worst of four colour categories describing whether each field of work is “delivering the outcomes ministers and the public want”.
The document says: “Work on Ofsted remains challenging, with significant risks to delivery and relationship.”
Marriages often fail over financial troubles, and this looks to be an issue between ministers and the watchdog. “Overall size of Ofsted’s budget for 2015-16 has now been agreed; disappointment has been expressed at senior levels [within Ofsted] about the reduction.”
The document adds: “Ofsted’s concerns about leaks are making it more challenging to support Ofsted ahead of publication and to brief ministers in advance.”
The report points out that Ofsted’s budget for 2015-16 – which was reduced by £6.7m on 2014-15’s £160m – had only been agreed between the two parties “very slow[ly]”.
It also seems that Ofsted’s controversial drive to carry out unannounced inspections in schools to check they are promoting “British values” had not gone well. There have been “confused and mixed messages [from Ofsted] about how many and which schools are ‘not preparing children for life in modern Britain’”, says the DfE paper. “We are trying to get to the bottom of this.”
Last year was tough for DfE-Ofsted relations, with frequent differences of opinion between the chief inspector, Sir Michael Wilshaw, and Sanctuary Buildings. We wonder if 2015 will be any better. Neither Ofsted, nor the DfE, commented.
Officials twitchy over Roma report
Last month, Ofsted published the results of an investigation into the quality of education provided in England to Roma children recently arrived from Eastern Europe. This, the DfE’s “Official Sensitive” document says, is “potentially contentious”, presumably in containing sensitive news for ministers in election year.
Ofsted’s report, based on visits to schools in three local authorities with relatively large numbers of Roma pupils, concluded that these children needed more support. All three councils had cut back on services – including reducing specialist support teacher posts – since 2010, despite sharp rises in Gypsy/Roma numbers, it reported.
Now a second leaked DfE document underscores official nervousness. Headlined “Ofsted report on the education of Roma pupils – lines to take”, and seemingly directed at press officers, it lists a range of “accusations” that could be levelled at the government.
These included that “some schools … are struggling to cope with the rapid increase in Roma pupil numbers”; that “schools do not get funding for migrants [arriving in the middle of a school year] quickly enough”; and that the DfE removed Labour’s system of ringfenced funding for ethnic minority achievement in 2011.
Specific responses on these issues seem sparse in the paper, but the DfE says it is considering how to “make the funding system more responsive to pupil mobility”, and that it is not re-instating targeted funding for ethnic minority achievement as it is up to local authorities and schools to decide how to spend their budgets.
In the end, Ofsted’s Roma report struggled for a hearing from much of the media. But it’s easy to see why it might have left the government vulnerable both to UKIP charges about public services being ill-equipped to deal with immigrant numbers, and to a Labour critique of cuts hitting vulnerable groups. With immigration seemingly central to election campaigns, we can see the potential for twitchiness among policymakers.
Watchdog loses its bite on dedicated website
The exam regulator, Ofqual, failed in a battle to keep its website from being taken over by the DfE, leaving Tory ministers on opposite sides of a row, a paper from England’s exams watchdog reveals.
Ofqual’s website was swept up into the single “gov.uk” mega-site in November.
But minutes of an Ofqual board meeting last September, which were quietly published last week, suggest that the Cabinet Office forced Ofqual to do this after the watchdog initially refused, seemingly amid concerns inside the regulatory body that its independence was being compromised.
“The board had previously considered this matter and had supported the retention of an independent website for Ofqual,” the notes say. “The board noted that [Cabinet Office minister] Francis Maude had rejected the request from [former schools minister] Liz Truss for Ofqual’s exemption to the move.”
“There was concern within the board that the letter from Francis Maude [seemingly setting out his decision] did not accurately reflect Ofqual’s independence from government,” the minutes add. Maude’s letter has not been released.
In November, we revealed how Ofsted, had felt similar concerns, formally contesting its move to “gov.uk”, again without success.
Ofqual’s meeting minutes suggest its board eventually went along with the change, on the grounds that it would retain editorial control over the new site’s content. But the move still seems controversial, not least in possibly making that content harder to find: Ofqual’s meeting minutes now lack a dedicated page on the new site and we only found them after asking the press office.
Beaks shut over Turkey Twizzler comeback
Finally: “Is the Turkey Twizzler set for a comeback?” So ran an intriguing headline in The Grocer magazine last year, revealing that the “bootiful” poultry farming firm Bernard Matthews had registered a new trade-mark: Oliver’s Twists.
The name looked to be a playful take on the TV chef and campaigner Jamie Oliver’s 2005 tirade against the company’s turkey twizzlers being served in school kitchens, which reportedly forced their withdrawal.
Last week it emerged that 4,000 academies created under this government will be spared from strict new nutrition regulations. So could that new trademark come in useful?
Bernard Matthews is keeping its beak firmly shut.
