Education Law Lawyers Instructed To Challenge ‘Flawed’ Inspections

A legal challenge into alleged “flawed” Ofsted inspections at a Dunstable school is due to be heard in the High Court this week. The case will be followed closely by education providers across the country affected by Ofsted’s inspection regime.

Senior leaders at All Saints Academy Dunstable instructed specialist education law lawyers at Irwin Mitchell to bring the judicial review against Ofsted. They argued the government department hadn’t provided sufficient evidence, explanations or reasons for its latest graded inspection report which comprised two separate visits with each team arriving at very different conclusions. The school will further argue that it did not have adequate information to challenge the report.

Inspectors visited All Saint’s Academy on 22 and 23 November, 2022. The secondary school was advised it would be graded ‘requires improvement’, despite being ‘good’ in four out of the five inspection areas and safeguarding deemed to be effective.

A second set of inspectors undertook a much shorter gathering additional evidence inspection on 24 January 2023 and reached very different judgments, which included safeguarding being ineffective and overall effectiveness inadequate. Lawyers for All Saints will argue that Ofsted failed to provide a reasonable standard of explanation, evidence and reasons for these differing judgments between two teams of Ofsted inspectors within two months of each other.

The High Court granted permission to proceed to a judicial review following a hearing last year in which Ofsted stated that its primary responsibility was not to assist the schools at all. Its responsibility was to inspect schools and report on schools.

The full judicial review hearing will consider whether Ofsted did provide sufficient reasons, explanation or evidence to allow the school or anyone to understand the findings and challenge the report.

Expert Opinion

“All Saints Academy is pleased the High Court has accepted this case meets the threshold for a judicial review of Ofsted’s inspection report, which it believes had significant flaws.

“The school is concerned not only about the content of the report and the procedure by which it was produced, but how a second team of inspectors could reach such very different conclusions to the first.

“The school has raised several matters regarding the inspection regime, which it believes are of national importance. There is real concern over Ofsted’s refusal to provide evidence and explanations for its judgement and this case will hopefully provide clarity on both this and the other issues at stake. This hopefully will help All Saints and other schools understand the reasons behind Ofsted’s judgements.

“This review will ensure that these serious concerns that have been raised are recognised and examined in detail, and we welcome the case being heard by the court.” Rachael Smurthwaite - Associate Solicitor

Irwin Mitchell’s case on behalf of All Saints Academy Dunstable will be put forward by barrister Paul Greatorex from 11KBW chambers. The judicial review is set to start at the Royal Courts of Justice on 24 April and is expected to last two days.