Further written evidence to be reported to the House
Education and Skills Bill
12:00 pm
Christine Ryan: There is not a negative agenda regarding Ofsted as far as I am concerned. I am a former Ofsted inspector myself, so there is no agenda of that type at all. I have given responses to a consultation document and I can only give truthful responses to the things laid out in that consultation. The fact that there are things in there that are factually incorrect is not something that that I can fail to do anything about: I must respond to those things, and I must respond to them properly.
As for our relationship with Ofsted, we have quite a good working relationship with it on many levels and that goes back to ISI’s creation. We discuss with it issues that it finds when it monitors our schools. Those things are not part of the formal reporting, but I am always happy to hear about them. There is no issue with Ofsted per se; the difficulties are with the consultation document, its layout and the premise on which it is based, given our recent experience of having to deal and liaise with Ofsted on other matters such as the transfer of boarding welfare. In reality, the experience of late has not been great, and it is acknowledged by both Ofsted and the Department that such communications have not been of the quality that they would have liked.