Bridget Phillipson has said she expects the “first priority” of unions to be “children and their life chances”, after her new proposals for Ofsted inspections were criticised for being worse than the system they would replace.
The Education Secretary said she will “always seek to engage in dialogue” with unions, but she “won’t let anything get in the way” of her responsibility to families and children.
At a speech in central London on Monday, Ms Phillipson rejected criticism of her plans to revamp inspections with a new “report card” style scale.
Asked by reporters what her message to unions would be given they have criticised the plans and unhappiness over pay proposals, the Cabinet minister said: “My first priority is children and their life chances, and that’s what I’d expect their first priority to be as well.
“Of course I’ll always seek to engage in dialogue and have a constructive relationship where that’s possible, but my first responsibility as Secretary of State is to children and families and to their life chances and I won’t let anything get in the way of that.”
Pushed further on whether she was listening to teachers and their concerns, she added: “I think there’s been a lot of discussion about how I as Secretary of State am apparently in hock to the trade unions. I think we’ve seen today from the reaction to what we’re setting out that that’s very far from the truth.
“I will always seek a constructive relationship with trade unions representing our teachers and workforce, they’ve got an important role to play.
“But my first priority will always be children and their life chances. That has to be my focus and that’s my first responsibility.”
Under the plans unveiled on Monday, schools in England could be graded across a variety of different areas – including attendance and inclusion – using a colour-coded five-point scale.
Schools would receive ratings – from the red-coloured “causing concern” to orange-coloured “attention needed”, through the green shades of “secure”, “strong” and “exemplary” – for each area of practice under proposals for Ofsted’s new report card system.
The reforms come after criticism of the inspection system following the death of headteacher Ruth Perry.
Mrs Perry took her own life after an Ofsted report downgraded her Caversham Primary School in Reading from the highest to the lowest overall effectiveness rating over safeguarding concerns.
Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “Ofsted and the Government appear to have learned nothing from the death of headteacher Ruth Perry and have instead devised an accountability system which will subject a beleaguered profession to yet more misery.
“Rather than securing high and rising standards – something we all want to see – this is a sure-fire way of doing the exact opposite. People will vote with their feet by leaving teaching which will worsen an already severe recruitment and retention crisis. We will end up without teachers to teach children and leaders to lead schools.
“Astonishingly, Ofsted’s proposed school report cards appear to be even worse than the single-word judgments they replace.”
Ms Phillipson defended the report cards and the “rich, granular insight” they can provide as she launched the 12-week consultation on the plans.
“I think parents are more than able to understand and to take on board greater information about what’s happening within their children’s school,” she said.
“Both in terms of strengths and areas of weakness and where there is further work required on improvement.
“So I just fundamentally reject this idea that somehow providing more information shining a light on areas where there is a need for improvement, but also where there is excellence, is somehow not something that parents want when all the evidence is clear that they do.”
Under the old system, Ofsted awarded one of four single-phrase inspection judgments: outstanding, good, requires improvement and inadequate.
In her speech at the Centre for Social Justice in Westminster, the Education Secretary said that “good” as a judgment has become “too vague” to serve its purpose.
She said: “So just like we guard against grade inflation, to make sure that results really reflect the achievement of students, we must protect standards here too, because when almost 8 in 10 schools are graded as good, it’s time we bank that progress and take good to another level.”
Ms Phillipson also described more than 600 schools in England as “stuck receiving consecutive poor Ofsted judgments”.
The Government has said that it will “intervene swiftly” with schools with the most serious issues, and the Department for Education (DfE) is consulting on new arrangements for intervention in state schools – including its plans for regional improvement for standards and excellence (Rise) teams.
Schools that are allocated Rise experts will see up to £100,000 made available for specialist support.
The proposals will include how the DfE will identify schools for mandatory targeted Rise interventions and the circumstances “where we would change the organisation that governs a school”, the Education Secretary said in a written statement to accompany her announcement.
In her address, she set out that “the worst performing schools, whether local authority maintained or academies” could be moved to a “strong trust”.
“That means new leadership brought in to boost the life chances of pupils,” she said.
In her conversation with journalists after the speech, Ms Phillipson said that she “won’t flinch” in turning “failing schools” into academies.
Under the proposed changes, any school where they have been graded as ‘causing concern’ in leadership by Ofsted – or where safeguarding has been graded as ‘not met’ – will go into special measures.
Meanwhile, schools where only leadership has been graded as “causing concern” will be placed into the category of “requires significant improvement”.
In its planned reforms for school accountability, the DfE said it would use “structural intervention” to improve schools deemed to be in special measures – so a local authority school would become an academy and an existing academy would be transferred to a “new and strong trust”.
“I won’t hesitate from intervening in schools that are failing. And we will continue to academise schools that are failing. That position will continue and it’s right that it does,” Ms Phillipson said.
“When a school is not delivering for children, that needs leadership change, it needs change overall.
“But what we’ve seen alongside that is lots of schools fall short of requiring structural change but are just not delivering the education that our children deserve so there’ll be more of a focus and greater support to turn around those schools too.”
“I won’t flinch from converting failing schools into academies,” she added.
Ms Perry’s sister, Professor Julia Waters, said that while the new model has some improvements, it “retains many of the dangerous features of the previous system, while introducing a series of changes with potential new risks to the wellbeing of teachers and headteachers”.
Prof Waters said: “I am worried that this proposal is a rehash of the discredited and dangerous system it is meant to replace.”
