Speaking at the Children’s Homes Association (CHA) conference in central London, Sir Martyn Oliver told delegates he would be publishing a report “in a few weeks” which “heavily focuses” on a shift away from single-word ratings.
The comments came as he was asked if he would support scrapping Ofsted’s one-word judgments for schools and children's services providers following the death of headteacher Ruth Perry last year.
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Oliver told CHA members that when he was appointed as chief inspector last autumn, he took up the position “knowing a general election was imminent”.
“I knew the ‘blue’ scenario and I knew the ‘red’ scenario,” he said, alluding to plans laid out by the then-Conservative government and the Labour Party.
“I knew the ‘red’ scenario would be the removal of the one-word judgment and the introduction of the report card and they won,” he added.
Oliver said that his report, which is expected to support the removal of one-word judgments, will be laid before Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson shortly.
“If Ofsted doesn’t improve, we run the risk of education, children’s services, children’s homes being ‘okay’ because we’ve given the majority ‘good’ ratings and then people think that’s fine.
“We need to call out what is wrong and we need to treat you gently while we’re doing it because you’re still delivering those services,” he told children’s residential care leaders.
The former government refused to scrap the one-word judgments in April, despite a report by MPs urging the Department for Education and Ofsted to work together “as a priority” on an alternative “that better captures the complex nature of a school’s performance”. It made no mention of whether the same changes would be made to children’s services inspections.
However, in Labour Party’s pre-election manifesto, Keir Starmer’s Plan for Schools pledged to “end single word Ofsted judgements and bring in report cards with annual checks on safeguarding and attendance”.
Sector-wide debates over scrapping single-word judgments were reignited when Perry took her own life in January last year after her school was inspected.
This “likely contributed” to her death, according to an inquest.
