A West Devon trade union has criticised the suggested new school inspections regime as worse than the previous one-word grading.

Increased resources, not inspections were the best way of improving standards, says the Devon branch of the National Education Union (NEU).

Ofsted is consulting on the replacement of the scrapped system which gave overall grades as outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate.

The old system was criticised for being too simplistic and leading to too much stress on staff. The inspections have been blamed for contributing to the death of primary headteacher Ruth Perry. She took her own life in 2023 a few weeks after inspectors downgraded her school in Caversham near Reading to inadequate.

The proposed new system includes introducing an Ofsted ‘report card’, giving parents detailed information about standards across more areas of practice in their child’s school, early years provider or college.

The plan suggests replacing the ‘single-word judgement’ with a new five-point grading scale for each evaluation area, including a new top ‘exemplary’ grade to help raise standards.

Mike Gurney, secretary of the NEU Devon Branch, said: ”Ofsted lost the confidence of parents and teachers some time ago. The death of headteacher Ruth Perry shone a light on the appalling practices from Ofsted that schools have had to endure.

“We all want to see an improving school system, but Ofsted's new report card system won't deliver it.

“The biggest issue in schools at the moment is the lack of resources. It's not inspection that leads to school improvement. To improve education it requires investment and working with schools over time.

“In fact the new Ofsted plans will make things worse not better. They were supposed to create a system of inspection that reduced pressure on the school system. Eight areas of measurement and a five-point scale creates 40 areas of judgement. The Nandos style colour coding will be more brutal than a single-phrase judgement.”

Mike, who teaches in Okehampton, said the Ofsted judgements were already unreliable – creating eight measurements in only two days would introduce more doubt: “Ofsted is incapable of reforming itself. They claim to have listened to the teaching profession, but it clearly went in one ear and out the other. Ofsted are a discredited organisation and they need to either work with schools and listen to teachers, or be replaced with a new system that does work.”

The Department for Education said: “The five-point scale will allow inspectors to highlight success when things are working well, provide reassurance that leaders are taking the right action where improvement is needed and identify where more urgent action is required to avoid standards declining. As well as giving parents more nuanced information, this approach will help reduce pressure on staff – by presenting a balanced picture of practice across more areas, not a single overall grade.”

The system will also give parents more ‘nuanced’ information, the DfE said.

The consultation run until the end of this April. Ofsted will publish a report this summer.