This year’s Ofsted Annual Report describes the extent to which education and children’s social care have recovered in the wake of the pandemic. It finds that, while there is much to be commended, ensuring this generation of children and young people get the education, training, care and opportunities they deserve remains a work in progress.
The report highlights a number of issues in education and care that are either created or exacerbated by workforce and resourcing challenges, and which are compounding problems left over from the pandemic:
- The early years sector is competing with, and losing out to, higher paid or more flexible employment. Nurseries have closed because they cannot recruit or retain high-quality, qualified and experienced staff. Some have become over-reliant on apprentices to fill gaps, which has a knock-on effect on the quality of education and safeguarding.
- Long-standing staffing challenges in the social care sector have worsened. Children’s homes are losing care workers to retail or hospitality – or another home that pays more – and the number of foster carers has fallen to its lowest point in years. This means there may not be enough places for children to live, or enough staff with the necessary skills to care for them.
- Staffing issues mean local authorities are increasingly reliant on agency social workers, whose terms often include more remote working. This can affect the quality of their relationships with children, as well as their level of local knowledge. Increasing workloads for those staying in the sector can also make the demands of an already challenging job unsustainable.
- High staff turnover creates instability for children in care, as it reduces their chances to build relationships, which are important for their well-being and sense of security.
- Recruitment continues to be a frustration for schools, colleges and independent learning providers. Schools report shortages of teaching assistants, and colleges are finding it difficult to recruit tutors in many areas. Fewer college staff can result in larger class sizes of mixed abilities, which can make it difficult to pitch the education or training at the right level.
- Schools have also continued to experience COVID-related staff absences. High demand makes it difficult to recruit supply teachers, so many schools have used their own staff to cover absences, which increases workloads. Managing with fewer staff slows the pace of intervention when children need extra help. And it has delayed the return of sports, drama, music and other enrichment activities that are normally part of the school experience.
- Many schools have found it difficult to access external support services for pupils with mental health issues. Lengthy waiting lists have placed an extra burden on schools.
- In some special (and mainstream) schools, recruiting staff with SEND expertise has been difficult, and staff turnover has been higher than pre-pandemic. As a result, children’s individual needs are not always met.
Overall, Ofsted inspections show an improving picture in schools and further education over the last year:
- 88% of all state-funded schools are now judged good or outstanding – up nearly 2 percentage points from 2021.
- 70% of schools previously judged requires improvement are now good or outstanding following inspection last year.
- Of 220 previously inadequate schools inspected last year, 66% were graded good or better and only 5% remained
- 82% of further education providers are currently judged good or outstanding, the same as last year. However, the proportion of colleges judged good or outstanding has increased by 11 percentage points to 91%.
Children with the most complex needs are often the least well served in already overstretched education and care systems:
- By the end of March 2022, around 50 children who are a significant risk to themselves or others were waiting for a secure children’s home place – double the previous year.
- Homes for children with acute mental health needs are in short supply.
- Less than half of all independent specialist colleges inspected this year were judged good or outstanding.
- Over half of local area SEND inspections required a written statement of action.
The SEND system was put under even greater strain during the pandemic and it has not recovered well since. There are nearly 1.5 million pupils currently identified as having SEND, an increase of almost 77,000 in the year. Demand for services has also grown significantly. Services such as speech and language therapy and mental health support were not always available and there were delays in assessments for education, health and care plans.