England's education secretary Lucy Powell has ordered the school regulator Ofsted to overhaul its inspection system for the second time in a year, after teachers and headteachers complained that recent changes were causing severe stress and damaging mental health.
Powell will instruct Ofsted to "go back to the drawing board," according to The Guardian. She became concerned that inspection changes introduced by her predecessor Bridget Phillipson were creating problems for school leaders.
The move comes after a sustained wave of complaints from the teaching profession about the new inspection framework. Teachers raised concerns that the system was dangerously stressful, though the source material does not detail the specific elements of the framework that prompted the complaints or describe what forms that stress has taken.
This marks the second major overhaul of school inspections within twelve months, suggesting instability in how England's schools are assessed and regulated. The previous round of changes, overseen by Phillipson, had been intended as reforms but appear to have generated unintended consequences for school staff.
The source material does not specify what changes Powell plans to implement or provide a timeline for the new overhaul. It also does not include responses from Ofsted, Phillipson, or detailed accounts of the complaints from teachers and headteachers beyond the characterisation that inspections were "dangerously stressful."