Nearly four out of 10 schools which have been failed by Ofsted on safeguarding this year appear to have done so only on safeguarding, new analysis suggests

Nearly four out of 10 schools which have been failed by Ofsted this year on their safeguarding arrangements appear to have been failed only on safeguarding, analysis of official figures from the inspectorate has shown.

Some 37 per cent of those schools which have been failed by Ofsted on safeguarding in the first part of this academic year were then only adjudged to be “inadequate” in relation to leadership and management. This is the only sub-judgement within inspections which can be influenced by safeguarding – though if a school fails on leadership and management, it fails the inspection overall.

The analysis will feed into the debate about “limiting” judgements within inspections, and specifically the ability of specific failings within safeguarding to condemn a school, and its leadership, to an “inadequate” judgement overall.

This appears to have been so in the tragic case of Caversham primary school in Reading, whose headteacher Ruth Perry killed herself after being told that it would be given Ofsted’s lowest rating. The analysis of Ofsted data by this website shows that Caversham was one of only three schools, among reports published up to March this academic year, to have been failed on safeguarding/leadership management but also to have been judged “good” by Ofsted on all other aspects of their work.

The detail

Education Uncovered looked at Ofsted’s data on schools which have been inspected this academic year. The inspectorate’s latest spreadsheet covers all schools whose reports had been published by March 31^st, including that of Caversham.