Ofsted inspector, chairing academy trust, led inspections of schools less than five miles away

Ofsted is facing questions over whether it is policing possible conflicts of interest closely enough, after details emerged of an educationist having led inspections of academies less than five miles away from the headquarters of the academy trust which she chairs.

Nicola Walters has led half of a high-profile multi-academy trust’s most recent inspections – despite her own trust being based nearby and with the two organisations appearing to have at least indirect links.

The developments have provoked questions, from this website, for Ofsted in relation to its conflict of interest policy, which states that inspectors who are on school governing bodies should not inspect “linked providers”.

The detail

It is unusual to find an inspector having led multiple inspections within a multi-academy trust, especially if they are involved with another trust based nearby.

But this is the situation, in this case. Ms Walters led the inspection of City Academy, Birmingham, in March last year, and Arena Academy, also in Birmingham, last month. Both are part of the four-school Core Education Trust.

Ms Walters is currently chair of the Titan Education Trust (TET), an organisation running two alternative provision schools. Ms Walters’ LinkedIn profile says she has held that position since November 2018. She is also one of the trust’s three controlling members, according to Department for Education records.

Ms Walters, a former headteacher in Birmingham, also chairs the governing body at one of TET’s two schools, Titan St Georges Academy, where TET itself is based. A check of the postcodes of this organisation, and of the schools she inspected, shows how close they are.

Titan St Georges is based near Aston Park, just north of Birmingham city centre. City Academy, Birmingham, is just 3.2 miles away from Titan St Georges by road, while Arena Academy is 3.7 miles from Titan St Georges, again by road.

Titan Partnership

Both the Core academies which Ms Walters inspected, City Academy and Arena Academy, as well as the Titan Education Trust schools, are members of another organisation called the Titan Partnership (TP). This sees 17 primary schools and 24 secondaries, plus four colleges and two local universities, collaborating to provide leadership support, teacher training and pupil enrichment events. Ms Walters is a former trustee/director of the organisation, having served on its board from 2011 to 2015, and from 2017 to 2019. The chief executive of Core Education Trust, Jo Tyler, is a director of TP and is also listed on its website as on TP’s executive committee. Nicola Hutchison, TET’s executive headteacher, also sits with Ms Tyler on TP’s board, according to Companies House records.

Some schools which are part of the Titan Partnership send pupils to the Titan Education Trust’s alternative provision facilities, as TET’s last-published accounts state.

The accounts say: “TET is a member of the Titan Partnership Trust which brings together a number of schools and academies in the north-west of the city. A substantial number of the secondary schools who are members of the [Titan Partnership] trust refer pupils to Titan St Georges Academy and Titan Aston Academy [the second school within TET].”

It is not clear whether Arena Academy or City Academy have sent pupils to St Georges or Titan Aston for alternative provision in recent years. If they did, this would seem to imply close links between the organisations. Even if they did not, there seem at least to be indirect links between the trust controlling the inspected schools, and the organisation which Ms Walters chairs.

Ofsted’s conflict of interest policy

The inspectorate’s most recently-published* conflict of interest policy states: “Those who work on behalf of Ofsted must not put themselves in a position where current employment, personal relationships or private interests conflict, or could be perceived to conflict.

“Ofsted’s approach to all potential conflicts, whether real or perceived, is to: always disclose at the earliest opportunity; agree arrangements to manage the conflict; prohibit activity when necessary.”

It adds: “OIs [Ofsted inspectors] should not accept work or undertake inspection or regulation activity with a provider where past, present or future employment, engagement, allegiance or relationship suggests an actual or perceived bias or any personal benefit. If an OI sits on a governing body or committee of a provider, they will not be permitted to inspect that provider or any linked provider.”

With Ms Walters sitting on the governing body – ie, the board – of both Titan Education Trust and Titan St Georges, the key question for Ofsted would be whether this was viewed as a “linked provider” to the Core Education Trust schools.

Questions put to Ofsted

I asked Ofsted if the inspectorate was confident that the two Core schools which Ms Walters had inspected had not recently been linked to the Titan Education Trust, which she chairs. I also asked it if either Core school used or had recently used alternative provision provided by TET and whether Ofsted had checked this; and whether Ms Walters’ connections with TET had been declared at the Ofsted inspections.

I also asked why Ms Walters was allowed to lead half of the most recent inspections of Core.

Ofsted has yet to get back to me with responses.

I also emailed Ms Walters, via TET, asking whether the positions she holds at TET were declared as part of the inspection process; whether TET schools were linked to Core schools in any way; and whether either Arena Academy or City Academy has referred or sent pupils for AP in recent years.

Ms Walters has yet to come back with responses.

The inspections

In terms of the inspections themselves, some aspects of these schools’ data suggest they were, statistically, treated relatively leniently, compared to the average of other institutions nationally.

City Academy, after its inspection in March 2023, received a “requires improvement” judgement overall. It was rated requires improvement on quality of education, and good on pupils’ behaviour and attitudes; on personal development; and on leadership and management.

However, its GCSE results, on the government’s key Progress 8 (P8) measure for secondary schools, were relatively poor for a school graded requires improvement, based on its 2022 and 2023 data.

The 2022 results, which would have been available to inspectors, were -0.58. I cross-checked this against results achieved by other secondary schools which were inspected during 2022-23. The figure of -0.58 was lower than the average for such schools which were graded “requires improvement” (the average was -0.45), leaving City Academy roughly half-way, in its results on this measure, between the average of requires improvement schools and that for those which were graded inadequate.

In 2023, City Academy’s results sadly plunged, to a figure of -1.16. This was well below the average even for Ofsted-inadequate schools inspected that year. Although these results were based on exams taken in the summer after the inspection, so would not have been available to inspections, clearly they were not a positive indicator (though the school did improve in 2024 to -0.47).

In terms of Arena Academy, it was graded good in all four inspection sub-categories following the inspection led by Ms Walters last month. Its P8 results in 2023 and 2024 were -0.25 and -0.36 respectively. This was lower than the average 2023 and 2024 results for schools which had Ofsted reports published in the year to November 2024 and had been rated good, at -0.12 and 0.42 respectively.

Arena Academy’s “Parent View” figures are also currently not good, compared to other schools, and to specifically also to those rated good. In statistics currently viewable on Ofsted’s website, 36 per cent of parents at Arena completing the inspectorate’s questionnaire on the school said they would not recommend it to another parent.

This is worse than the national average figure, based on Ofsted data for September 2023-September 2024, which stood at 16 per cent. Among schools inspected in 2023-24 and rated good by Ofsted, the average was 15 per cent.

Arena Academy’s data was based on responses from only 59 parents, which is a relatively small proportion of its pupil roll of 1,105.

Final background

The Core Education Trust is relatively high-profile in terms of its history, since it was the vehicle for the relaunch of the governance of a school which was at the centre of the Trojan Horse affair in the mid-2010s. In 2015, Park View Academy became Rockwood Academy, and the Park View Educational Trust became the Core Education Trust.

Arena Academy is the current name for the former Perry Beeches School, whose academy trust was closed by the DfE after a financial investigation in 2016.

Core has been spearheaded by Adrian Packer, who is its billed as its “group CEO”.

Overall, this inspection case seems to raise questions about Ofsted’s system of having influential players in England’s fragmented schools set-up also inspecting within that regime, and whether sufficient checks and balances have been put in place, given the high stakes around inspection. It does seem surprising that the inspectorate would allow an inspection to be led by someone having connections to other institutions operating nearby, not once, but twice. Observers might wonder if it would have been better for someone from outside of the local area to have been leading these inspections.

*This dates to 2019, and only seems to be available via an archiving site. I asked Ofsted if this version of the policy currently applied, and if it could point me towards a more up-to-date version. It told me: “We don’t publish our conflict of interest policy externally any more,” but that the sections featured in this article still apply.