Quis custiodet custodes?

摘要

A recent motion tabled in Parliament called for Ofsted to be axed. The chair of the Local Government Assocation's children and young people board, Cllr David Simmonds, has publicly questioned the credibility and consistency of the inspectorate. The president of the Association of Directors of Children's Services, Alan Wood, also voiced his concern about the inspectorate at the recent National Children and Adult Services conference. Inspectors are never going to be popular. Schools, hospitals and social service departments which get less than glowing reports are going to complain that the inspectors focus on some areas at the expense of others resulting in unbalanced reports; that the short time on site did not do justice to the complexity of the service or take proper account of local circumstances. That could be down to the educational standards of pupils on admission, levels of poverty and challenges presented by those whose first language is not English or levels of unemployment and poor housing.