NASUWT: Coalition’s slash and burn approach to guidance amounts to reckless endangerment
Commenting on the release today (Friday) of the Ofsted Report, ‘Safeguarding in schools: best practice’, Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, the largest teachers’ union, said this:
“Ofsted’s latest report on safeguarding provides reassurance about schools' practices in keeping children safe.
“However, there is clearly no room for complacency and no guarantee that the progress made can be sustained, given the Coalition Government’s current policy on regulation and guidance.
“A real challenge is posed for the safety of children and young people by the reckless endangerment being driven through by the Coalition Government’s ‘slash and burn’ approach to cutting guidance and regulation, removing important advice, good practice and support for schools.
“It is also difficult to see how the Coalition Government’s EBacc reforms will help schools to deliver the improvements the Report is calling for in safeguarding practice, which Ofsted identifies as being enhanced by a broad and balanced curriculum.
“It is ludicrous that safeguarding of children, which should be an essential requirement of any school inspection, will be removed as a statutory requirement for the inspection of schools as a result of the Coalition Government’s Education Bill, currently going through its Parliamentary process.
“It is difficult to see how the Coalition Government’s cuts to the budget of Her Majesty’s Inspectorate will help Ofsted in future to provide the reassurance parents and the public need about children’s safety and wellbeing.”
ENDS
Stuart Gannon
NASUWT Press Office
Tel: 020 7420 9681
Mobile (and out of hours contact): 07966 198894
Address: 5 King Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2E 8SD
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