Fifth of Ofsted staff plan to leave within a year

Six per cent want to quit “as soon as possible” while 14 per cent are looking to leave within the year, the latest Civil Service People Survey of staff has revealed.

Staff were particularly critical of the inspectorate’s management of recent reforms.

Major changes at the inspectorate brought in from September include bringing school inspections in-house. At the same time, a common inspection framework for all early years settings was introduced, as were short inspections for schools judged to be good at their previous inspection.

More than four out of 10 (42 per cent) believe that change is not managed well at Ofsted and 31 per cent believe that changes being made are not “usually for the better”.

Around a third (35 per cent) do not feel that “it is safe to challenge the way things are done in Ofsted” and only half of those surveyed felt that Ofsted “as a whole is managed well”.

Also 30 per cent said they did not think that “organisational culture has changed for the better since this time last year”. This was one per cent more than those who agreed with that statement.  

Lack of career development was another criticism made by staff, with 31 per cent believing the inspectorate is not offering opportunities to develop their skills. A similar proportion believe that their workload is unacceptable.

In addition, 12 per cent said they had been discriminated against at work, while eight per cent said they had been personally bullied or harassed.

Despite these concerns staff were positive about their direct managers, with 75 per cent saying their manager “motivates me to be effective in my job”.

This survey does show some improvement in staff satisfaction. The number who want to leave Ofsted as soon as possible is one per cent down on last year’s survey of the inspectorate’s staff. It is also three per cent less than the response from civil servants as a whole this year and six per cent less than those surveyed from the top performing departments and organisations in terms of satisfaction.

An Ofsted spokesman said: “Ofsted has recently changed its operating model. We will learn from this and other experiences as we seek to enhance our employee engagement and further improve the way we lead and manage change.

“The proportion of staff who said they wanted to leave is lower than high-performing civil service departments, while the share of those who said that change is not managed well and believe it is safe to challenge the way things are done is better than it was last year.”

Public sector managers union, The FDA, said it had held discussions with Ofsted over the effects on staff of "constant change" in the inspectorate.

An FDA spokeswoman said: "While matching commitments to resources is a challenge for any public sector organisation in the current climate, increased pressure on inspectors and near-constant change have raised particular issues in Ofsted. It is therefore no surprise that issues around workload, change management and engagement manifest themselves in the people survey results.

"Our own working hours survey conducted earlier in the year showed that almost two thirds believe insufficient steps have been taken to address excessive hours issues. The FDA seeks to work constructively with Ofsted to address these concerns."