Calls for Ofsted to inspect pupil wellbeing
The Education Policy Institute (EPI) has published a report calling for a fairer and more holistic approach to the current accountability system in education. As part of this, the think tank argues that the government should consider wellbeing as a data point for school performance and monitoring children’s mental health.
There are no current measures of pupil wellbeing available in centrally collected data. The EPI says that the #BeeWell annual survey of pupil wellbeing is an example of how this kind of data could be collected more widely. #BeeWell is a collaboration between The University of Manchester, The Gregson Family Foundation, and Anna Freud, who launched the programme together with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) in 2019. It surveys young people to find out more about their wellbeing and what can be done to improve it. The programme has now been expanded across Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and Southampton, capturing the voices of 85,000 young people in more than 190 secondary schools.
The EPI cautions that if pupil wellbeing became part of the accountability system, the government would need to consider whether the burden it places on schools is reasonable and whether the information it generates should be publicly available or remain private to the school. However, Paul Whiteman, general secretary at school leaders’ union NAHT, argues against attempts to measure wellbeing at school level. He says ‘there is far too much influencing wellbeing which is beyond a school’s control […] such a measure is fraught with dangers and the unintended consequences are significant.’
School buildings face maintenance backlog of £13.8 billion
According to a new report released by the National Audit Office (NAO), the government has accumulated a maintenance backlog of at least £49 billion across key public services. Almost 30% of this backlog was accounted for by schools, coming in joint-second place with NHS sites. This is equivalent to roughly £13.8 billion, however the NAO warns that the lack of high-quality government data means that the true cost is likely to be higher.
Maintenance covers all interventions that help to keep buildings up to standard. This includes cleaning, checking walls and roofs, and repairing and replacing electric, water, sewage and heating systems. The NAO highlights that well-maintained properties are more cost effective, less likely to break down and longer lasting than those that are poorly maintained. Well-maintained properties also contribute to ‘higher levels of wellbeing, reduced absenteeism and higher productivity’ for the people who work in them. Conversely, poorly maintained properties can have a negative effect on the quality of education and staff retention.
The NAO argues that government departments should produce long-term property plans, setting out the capital needs of the service over the next 10 years or more, alongside a plan to reduce their backlog. Julia Harnden, Funding Specialist at the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), agrees with the report’s recommendations, but adds that ‘the Treasury [needs] to support the plan with investment. Short-term thinking and small-scale investment is just not going to cut it.’
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