New Clause 4 - Complaints procedures
Education Bill [Lords]
2:30 pm
Mr Don Touhig (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Wales), Department for Constitutional Affairs; Islwyn, Labour/Co-operative)
When we adjourned, I had just said a few words about what I saw as the intention behind the new clauses tabled by the hon. Member for Upminster (Angela Watkinson), which seek to create a procedure for complaints to the independent adjudicator. There is already an independent complaints adjudicator for Ofsted, who was appointed by the Secretary of State. Before I speak about her role, it is worth saying a word about the context of complaints about school inspections in England. Because of the other changes that we seek to make in the Bill, the responsibility for school inspections will, in future, be firmly with Ofsted and complaints about inspections will have to be dealt with in that new context.
Ofsted has already developed, and is currently consulting on, a new complaints procedure for inspections, which will take particular account of the planned arrangements. The new procedure will set out clearly how schools will be able to discuss any concerns about an inspection with Ofsted, as well as to complain more formally. It will be explicit that a complaint may be about the inspection, the report, including judgments, or the conduct of the inspector.
The hon. Members for Southport (Dr. Pugh) and for Upminster expressed some concerns this morning about the reaction that teachers get when they have a problem with inspectors. The hon. Gentleman gave an example from his own experience. Ofsted will soon publish a code of conduct for inspectors. A similar code of conduct already exits and is published in Wales. In future, Ofsted will be able to address concerns directly at all stages of the process and amend reports when a complaint is upheld.
The independent complaints adjudicator is in place and is completely independent of Ofsted. The adjudicator can consider complaints about any of the issues covered in subsection (1)(a) to (c) of the proposed new clause tabled by the hon. Lady, provided that the person complaining has exhausted Ofsted’s own complaints procedure. It must be right that an organisation has proper opportunities to see whether it needs to take action in response to a complaint before that complaint is referred to a third party. Unlike Ofsted, the adjudicator is not able to overturn professional judgments, but she is able to make recommendations if she considers that there is no evidence for a judgment or if the report does not adequately explain the link between the evidence and the finding. The adjudicator can recommend that the chief inspector reconsider a complaint in the light of her comments. If he rejects her decisions, he must make a public statement giving his reasons.
The only thing proposed in the new clause that cannot happen now is that the chief inspector is not able, without limitation, to modify and republish inspection reports. Under section 10 of the School Inspections Act 1996, they are not his reports; they are those of the registered inspectors. However, we seek to change that through the Bill, which will place the responsibility for the publication of all inspection reports in England with the chief inspector.
I believe that the remit of the complaints adjudicator is right. She is already appointed by the Secretary of State so there is no need for the appointment to be statutory. Robust procedures are in place for schools to be able to ensure that inaccuracies are corrected, to challenge judgments when they think that they are unfair and to seek independent adjudication when they remain dissatisfied with the outcome of the complaint. As the remarks made by the hon. Member for Southport demonstrate, there are difficulties. I am sure that we all know of cases where there have been tensions when inspectors have gone into schools and there have been disagreements, as the hon. Gentleman alluded to, about the way in which a subject has been taught. We recognise those tensions and the pressures put on all teachers as a consequence.