Head teachers’ union’s legal action over Ofsted report card plans thrown out

A head teachers’ union has lost a bid to bring a High Court legal challenge against Ofsted over the watchdog’s plan to grade schools through report cards.

The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), along with head teacher Barbara Middleton, began legal action against Ofsted in May this year, claiming that the body failed to adequately consult on its plans to change the way schools are inspected.

Ofsted scrapped single-word judgments for schools in 2024 and unveiled the new report card scheme in September, which is due to come into effect on November 10.

The new framework was announced following a consultation launched after criticism of the inspection system since the death of head teacher Ruth Perry.

Ms Perry took her own life after an Ofsted report downgraded her Berkshire primary school from its highest rating of “outstanding” to its lowest rating, “inadequate”, over safeguarding concerns.

At the High Court on Monday, barristers for the NAHT and Ms Middleton said that they should be allowed to proceed with a legal challenge over Ofsted’s consultation and decision to adopt the new framework.

They claimed the consultation “ruled out” the use of “narrative-only verdicts” on schools and failed to consider the impact of the new framework on staff wellbeing.

They also asked a judge to temporarily block the report card plans from coming into force, pending the full hearing of the challenge.

Lawyers for Ofsted said it was “vigorously opposed” to a delay in implementing the plans, telling the court that they were a “considerable upgrade in terms of wellbeing” and that the challenge “is on any view a weak claim”.

In a ruling, Mr Justice Saini dismissed the claim, finding that Ofsted had not made an “arguable error”.

He said: “It is for Ofsted to decide how to conduct its inspections in the way which, in its expert judgment, is most effective, while taking account of the risk to the wellbeing of teaching staff and leaders.”

He continued: “The evidence satisfies me that Ofsted’s conclusions, that a grading plus narrative approach best balances the different interests at play, was reached after a detailed consultation conducted in a procedurally lawful way and after a careful assessment of the various views expressed to it, including consideration of wellbeing issues.”

Mr Justice Saini also said that he hoped to give written reasons for his decision later this week, and ordered the claimants to pay £40,000 of Ofsted’s legal costs.

Ofsted announced its report card plans earlier this year, after launching a consultation in February.

Under the scheme, schools will be given one of five grades – urgent improvement, needs attention, expected standard, strong standard, and exceptional – in each of six areas, with reasoning provided for each grading.

A pass or fail grade will be given in relation to safeguarding, with inspections paused since September 1 to allow education providers time to prepare for the new framework.

A poll by YouGov found almost seven out of 10 parents surveyed preferred the new-look report cards to Ofsted’s current inspection reports.

However, an independent report by Sinead McBrearty, the chief executive of teacher wellbeing charity Education Support, said that stakeholders had called for the rollout of the changes to be stopped or slowed down, and that baseline stress of school leaders is “concerningly high”.

In court on Monday, Hugh Southey KC, for the NAHT and Ms Middleton, said there was “at the very least an appearance of pre-determination” in Ofsted’s consultation, and the watchdog had “rejected” the “key option” of narrative-only verdicts.

Mr Southey said: “It is clear that when the consultation document was issued, effectively it had been decided that there should be a five-point grading scale, or at the very least what was ruled out were narrative-only verdicts.”

The barrister continued that the National Education Union and the Association of School and College Leaders both supported the legal challenge, stating: “All three of these unions believe that narrative-only verdicts are the correct way forward and they are the correct way of safeguarding wellbeing.”

In written submissions for the hearing in London, Sir James Eadie KC, for Ofsted, said there was “nothing to the suggestion that it had already closed its mind” as to the new framework.

He said: “It is in the public interest for Ofsted to conduct its inspections in the way which, in its expert judgment, is most effective, while taking account of the risk to staff wellbeing.”

Sir James continued: “Ofsted considered, carefully: the wellbeing and workload implications of the five‑point scale; the relative merits of the narrative approach and other grading schemes, including on wellbeing grounds; and the reforms necessary to reduce workload and promote wellbeing more generally.”