New Clause 4 - Complaints Procedures
Education Bill [Lords]
11:15 am
Mr John Pugh (Education Spokesperson, Education & Skills; Southport, Liberal Democrat)
I support the new clause. I should make it clear that I need not declare an interest. In God knows how many years of teaching, I was not once inspected by anyone. I managed to be in the right place at the right time, so I bear no grudge myself. They never got me.
I have no axe to grind, but I know of inspections that have gone awry in one way or another: for example, whole-school inspections in which people felt that the inspection got off to a bad start and deteriorated further, and inspections of individual departments. A competent and well-staffed language department was inspected by a fairly professional inspector. They had different views on how language should be taught and exactly what the procedures should be to provide children with a better education in French, German and so on. As a result of what one might call an ideological clash between the inspector and the staff, a satisfactory inspection did not take place. As the whole-school inspection was regarded as something of a success, the individual teachers who suffered as a result of the judgment passed upon them simply had to grin and bear it.
Such situations always strike me as slightly unfortunate. Some inspectors enter the world of inspection as fellow professionals and partners in education. They have the aim of producing a better, more coherent curriculum or better pupil performance. Unfortunately, there are other inspectors—they are a rarity—who relish their new power as an opportunity to wreak professional havoc on their peers. One would hope that such people were identified fairly early and eliminated from the inspector cohort, but serious injustices occur from time to time. In some cases, people on whom the most adverse judgments are passed are, in fact, some of the most dedicated professionals. I know many teachers. Some of the people who fret most about inspections, who become most nervous under their influence and who are likely to under-perform are the most committed, dedicated and worried about failure. Some people can sail through, adopting a slightly more casual approach.
The general thrust of the new clause is right. We must give teachers, who ultimately are the people being inspected, an assurance that we are mindful of such concerns. If such a provision is not included anywhere else in the Bill, the new clause will be a useful adjunct.