The Association of School and College Leaders has shelved plans to ask leaders to quit as Ofsted inspectors, but has now vowed to “explore legal action” against the reforms.
The union said in June it was considering the “unprecedented step” of asking its members to step down as Ofsted inspectors unless the watchdog delays roll-out of new inspections and ditches plans for five grades.
ASCL has said today its council has decided not to go ahead with the plan “at this stage … to allow time to gather evidence over the impact of the framework in practice during both pilot and routine inspections”.
But the union said it has now “resolved to explore options for taking legal action” over the potential impact of new report card inspections.
When asked what action this could mean, a union spokesperson said they will be speaking to headteachers’ union the NAHT “about their legal action as part of the process of exploring the options”.
NAHT has already filed a legal challenge against the Ofsted reforms in the high court. This was updated following the publication of an independent review of the wellbeing impact of the proposals.
In the report, Sinead Mc Brearty, chief executive of the charity Education Support, warned new Ofsted report cards will create more anxiety for leaders with already “concerningly high” stress levels.
The leadership of the NAHT headteachers’ union is also considering whether to ballot members for industrial action over Ofsted reforms.
During an emergency online meeting last month, almost 2,000 NAHT members were asked if they would support exploring industrial options. Eighty-nine per cent voted yes.
‘We don’t take this step lightly’
Pepe Di’Iasio (pictured), ASCL’s general secretary, said: “We don’t take the step of exploring legal action lightly, but our members are gravely concerned about the stress and pressure likely to be generated by the new inspection system with its five-point grading scale applied over multiple evaluation areas.
“As feedback to the independent wellbeing impact assessment commissioned by Ofsted put it so succinctly, this will result in ‘many more ways to fail.’”
While he said the plans are a “recipe for chaos”, Di’Iasio added the union is “trying to be as reasonable as possible, and have decided to hold off from encouraging members who are Ofsted inspectors to withdraw their services for the time being while we gather evidence about the impact of the new system as inspections are rolled out.
“But we will be monitoring this closely and that option remains firmly on the table.”
An Ofsted spokesperson said: “We welcome ASCL’s sensible decision not to ask members who work for us as inspectors to withdraw their services.
“We have had really positive feedback from our pilots and we’re confident that our new-look inspections will be well-received when they begin in November.”
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