GovWire

Introduction

Good morning and thank you for having me, its great to be here with you all today.

As you know, before taking on this role I was heavily involved with Confederation of School Trusts (CST) and have often been sat in the audience at these events so its an honour to now be up here this time speaking to you.

And, can I take a moment to congratulate Sir Hamid, Leora, Steve and all of the team at CST for their work.

I valued the role of CST as a trust leader and I value the role of CST as His Majestys Chief Inspector working with the system is a priority for me throughout my time at Ofsted.

And its great to be among so many familiar and I hope! friendly faces.

It was great to have the chance to speak to a number of you last night at the dinner and can I add my congratulations to Sir David Carter for his lifetime achievement award.

One of the questions that came up most, and its one I often get, is what have I learnt since joining Ofsted that I didnt know before?

And this is a great place to start today, because if I am truthful, I have learnt a lot since joining Ofsted.

Not just about the wider role Ofsted has across so many services that work with children, but also about how all these organisations should and, in most cases, DO work together.

The whole picture of a childs life

Ofsteds remit is large and that is one of its greatest strengths.

The fact that there is a single organisation that inspects childrens homes, early years settings, childminders in their homes, after-school provisions, prison education and so much more gives us a privileged position when assessing children and young peoples experiences and wellbeing in any location.

As an organisation, we have access to the information that presents the whole picture of a childs life in your areas, not just their life at school.

For example, as a secondary head, I, as most do, worked hard on our relationship with our primary feeder schools.

But I hadnt really given enough thought to what the early years provision was like in the area my school was in.

What kind of provision did the children get in those crucial formative years?

And how easy was it for parents in my area, including the teachers and staff in my school who were parents, to get that provision?

Of course, when I went on to work in and lead a multi-academy trust, which sponsored primaries and had early years provision, it allowed me to start to build this knowledge and those relationships.

Thats one of the strengths of a strong group of schools.

But I still question whether I did enough to support the leaders of my trusts schools to fully embrace and understand what the full educational and care journey was like for the children who I had the privilege to teach.

And on early years provision weve recently released some research that shows huge disparity regionally about access to childcare.

And of course it is those areas that are disproportionately deprived or who have lower incomes that are more likely to have less access.

We all know that the best way to close gaps is not to have a gap in the first place the earlier the intervention, the better.

Do have a look at the provision around your schools.

This sort of work and information is just one of the ways in which Ofsted will use its privileged position and information to provide new area insights.

These insights will bring together a range of data currently found in many of our pre-inspection tools and will help us understand the context of the education and care providers we inspect and regulate better.

By doing this, we will be fairer to providers and more useful to parents and service users.

And it is worth me talking about care provision.

Because, as a trust leader overseeing schools in some of the most deprived areas, we had a real focus on supporting a large number of children in care.

I nevertheless simply didnt know enough to say whether any of my looked after children were in childrens homes that were not registered with Ofsted, and therefore not inspected.

I knew of all the children in my schools that were looked after children, but like many of you I am sure, I didnt think that they might be living in a home that wasnt even meeting its legal requirements.

I ask you all now do you know which of your looked after children are in unregistered childrens homes and which are in registered ones?

Would you want even stronger pastoral support in place if you did know?

Being registered with the regulator and being inspected by the inspectorate does give significantly greater assurance about the system.

This this is the job of Ofsted.

And, as it happens, I was in a local authority run childrens home not long ago and I had a wonderful afternoon and even got to judge the sausage roll competition, which was excellent!

But even with those childrens homes that are registered, many of which, like the one I visited, do an excellent job there is a lot that many teachers and school leaders might not know about them.

Jacks story

And on this note, I want to talk to you about a young man my Deputy and I had the real pleasure of talking to just last week Jack.

Jack is with me today, sat in the audience.

Jack grew up in a childrens home and thankfully, in the main, had great staff supporting him staff that were really invested in his development as a person.

Jack is really keen that I tell you at this point that hes trans and transitioned in 2012 and this adds to his story, because his teenage years were challenging for him and he challenged the system

hes the first to admit that he had a troubled childhood, and this would often come out while he was in the childrens home.

He told me about how the sta? put up with his window smashing, aggressive outbursts.

With his crying, his up and down moods including deep long lows, sadly resulting in suicide attempts.

He said he had soul destroying low self-esteem.

And lets be honest, it is heart-breaking that a child can go through that, things that can shape the rest of their lives through these most crucial years.

But, he would also talk about how the sta? supported and taught him good social skills and a self-confidence to get back out there in the world.

He talked about rollerblading and laughing his head off, to quote him directly; days out to the beach, to the countryside, to a castle, and to Blackpool in what he describes as a great childhood at times.

He talked about how the staff were invested in him and what was best for him like fighting for him to stay in his childrens home past his 18th birthday so he could finish the academic year.

He describes those staff as not the mums and dads he needed but more like aunts and uncles, great aunts and uncles and nans and grandads and even cousins role models in their unique ways.

It was these people that got him to school, presenting as any other child would.

He says that all the good qualities people see in him today are as a direct result of his time in childrens homes.

Jack is now a part time researcher at Cambridge University and has just successfully just been appointed into the Civil Service.

Areas impacting a childs life

Now, I know there were children like Jack in my schools and despite my best efforts, I was simply not always aware enough of the extent of what was going on in their lives.

Children who the staff in those childrens homes were patching up and sending to school dealing with the trauma at home and being such a force for good so that when the child got to school they could be as much of their best self as possible, and get the education they so desperately needed and deserved.

Now, schools cannot and should not be expected to solve all of societys problems, but we are, as CST has advocated, anchors in the community.

And this is what I have learnt most about the importance of Ofsted and our role across almost all of the services and areas that could impact on a childs life.

There are lots of services and provisions, all looking after or catering for one part of a childs life, but often not looking across at what else is happening and what may be impacting that child.

Ofsted, and its wide area of responsibilities, can help with this.

And as trust leaders, more and more of you are reaching beyond what was traditionally required of you.

Not only do your trusts have responsibility over so many childrens lives, but you are also the hubs for all these anchors of communities you have real influence over a community, which adds an unseen pressure for success in your schools.

You are helping children to belong and you are helping them to thrive both of which are areas Im keen we look at and recognise as we develop our work at Ofsted. We want to do, and we are doing, our bit to help you with that.

Changes

I know

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