School leaders’ union NAHT has initiated legal action against Ofsted over the potential impact of their inspection proposals on the mental health and wellbeing of head teachers and school staff.

The union issued a claim for judicial review on Friday 2^nd May, ahead of its Annual Conference in Harrogate this weekend, where delegates will debate and vote on a motion calling for all ‘legal and industrial options’ to be explored to protect the mental and physical health of school leaders in the face of Ofsted’s new report card proposals.

Ofsted’s plans for a new report card involve an increased number of graded sub-judgements, which school leaders fear will only increase high-stakes accountability and pressure. The inspectorate has also announced plans that will lead to more schools being ‘monitored’ by inspectors following an inspection.

Paul Whiteman, NAHT general secretary, said: “Somehow the focus on school leader mental health and wellbeing has got lost along the way during Ofsted’s consultation process.

“We must not forget that the catalyst for these changes was the tragic death of Ruth Perry and widespread acceptance that the inspection regime was placing school leaders under intolerable pressure. However, there appears to have been very little thought given to the impact on the wellbeing of school leaders in the drawing up of these plans and the consultation that followed.

“School leaders are deeply concerned that the new report cards could result in an even worse system than before, with potentially disastrous impact on workload, wellbeing and retention.

“We have tried engaging with Ofsted and explaining this, but so far these concerns have fallen largely on deaf ears. We have been left with little choice other than to pursue this action.”

NAHT is opposing Ofsted’s report card proposals on legal grounds, arguing that adequate consultation has not been conducted regarding the plan for a new 5-point scale to grade schools, as this element of the proposals was presented as final during Ofsted’s report card consultation which closed this week (Mon 28 April). Any other possible options were rejected with no reference to wellbeing, despite Ofsted recognising that wellbeing is an important instigator for the changes it is making.

NAHT issued its claim for judicial review on Friday 2^nd May. The motion on Ofsted’s report card proposals will be debated and voted on today, Sat 3^rd May.

A live stream of conference will be available to view on NAHT’s website:

https://www.naht.org.uk/AnnualConference.