- Conference
- 2024 Local Government Service Group Conference
- Date
- 23 February 2024
- Decision
- Carried
Conference, stress caused by OFSTED has featured frequently in the news over the past few years, with reports on how the pressure of OFSTED has detrimentally impacted the health and wellbeing of headteachers and teachers in schools. But sadly, the impact a visit from OFSTED has on support staff is often overlooked.
When a school or academy gets ‘the call’ that OFSTED are coming in, support staff are just as vital to the preparations within school as teachers, which can include working outside of normal hours to complete additional admin tasks, cleaning and maintenance and providing support to their teaching colleagues to ensure that everything is in order and ready for the inspection.
When OFSTED arrive, it is support staff that are expected to cover the classes when the teachers are called out of the classroom, with little acknowledgement on the impact this has on their other duties, such as providing crucial interventions to students. Sometimes, the teacher’s meeting with an OFSTED inspector can and does overrun and this leaves support staff without sufficient work to deliver to their pupils. If this happens, support staff start to feel completely overwhelmed, and at times, out of their depth, especially if they have never had to teach a full class before.
Conference, we know that when there are budget cuts within schools it is support staff that are hit the hardest and are expected to do more with less staff. When OFSTED arrive this causes heightened stress and anxiety among support staff, many of whom are already balancing multiple demands in their roles. Apart from the impact on support staff’s mental health, there is also significant impact on their physical health, too. Some support staff have admitted to not eating or sleeping, as the thought of an OFSTED visit weighs heavily on their whole being.
Conference, despite their invaluable contributions to the school community, support staff tell us that they feel undervalued and overlooked in the process because typically success with OFSTED is attributed to the work of the teachers and headteachers.
We call on the Local Government Service Group Executive to:
1) Work closely with the NEC, National Schools Committee, Regions, and Branches to raise the profile of the impact that OFSTED has on the health and wellbeing of Support Staff and carry out a survey of support staff members views on the effectiveness of OFSTED and impact on UNISON members;
2) Work through UNISON’s structures and Labour link to seek to lobby relevant politicians in relation to reforms to OFSTED.