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)
The independent adjudicator would not be able to overturn professional judgments in the report, but she can recommend that an inspector reconsider a complaint in the light of her comments. If he rejects her decision, he must then make a public statement to say why he has done so.
New clause 7 would put a duty on the National Assembly for Wales to make regulations setting out a procedure for complaining to an independent adjudicator. The adjudicator would be required to consider complaints lodged against the conduct of a school inspection and the conclusions set out in the inspection report. That could include complaints that an inspection had been conducted in a manner inconsistent with legal requirements.
As I understand the hon. Lady’s intention, the adjudicator could also consider a complaint that the evidence gathered during the inspection did not support the conclusions of an inspection report. In such circumstances, the chief inspector would be required to act in accordance with the findings of the adjudicator, and that would include revising and republishing the inspection report when required.
It is right that there should be clear and readily available avenues of redress for those who wish to lodge complaints about professional judgments and opinions expressed in an inspection report and about the extent to which the inspection was conducted in a manner consistent with the accepted processes and procedures. However, I can tell the hon. Lady that Estyn—Her Majesty’s inspectorate for education and training in Wales—already has detailed and transparent procedures for handling such complaints.
The position in Wales is that, under the common inspection framework, a school nominee will be attached to each inspection team and will be able to bring additional evidence to the team at any point during the process. That person will be aware of the emerging judgments and will therefore be well placed to challenge the findings and to present additional information or evidence to the inspectorate team.
On the production of reports, regulations already provide for reports to be completed within 35 working days. Estyn’s guidance requires that, within that period, the registered inspector give the school a late draft of the report to help with the checking of factual content. The school then has five working days in which to consider the draft, and the inspector has to take account of comments offered and to correct factual errors. The main purpose of that process is to enable the correction of factual inaccuracies, but it presents the school with an opportunity to raise issues about which it feels strongly. Beyond that, any complaint about the professional judgments that are made in the course of the school inspection will be considered initially by the lead inspector. If complainants are not satisfied with the response, they may ask for the complaint to be considered by a senior HMI or the chief inspector.
On the processes and procedures followed during an inspection, it is also right that schools should have access to further independent avenues of redress. Again, such provision is already made. Those who are dissatisfied with the conduct of an inspection or with the way in which Estyn has managed their complaint can approach the Welsh administration ombudsman, who is empowered to investigate complaints of injustice due to maladministration by Welsh public bodies, including Estyn. Maladministration includes poor administration resulting from the failure to follow correct procedures, as well as unfairness, bias or prejudice, and giving misleading or inadequate evidence. The ombudsman has powers to investigate complaints about the administrative actions taken by Estyn or those acting for the inspectorate. If a complaint were justified in the opinion of the ombudsman, the inspectorate would be required, within a set period, to take action to meet any recommendation set out by the ombudsman.
Therefore, there are already accepted and readily accessible procedures for challenging the professional judgment registered in an inspection report and the manner in which the inspection was conducted, and they include recourse to independent adjudication. With those remarks, I hope that the hon. Lady will better understand the intention behind what the Government seek to do and why we are resisting the new clauses that she has tabled.