2026 Summer Term

The know zone

  • Disadvantaged pupils: Decoding the data
    With growing policy focus on disadvantaged pupils, schools must utilise data to improve student outcomes. Tiffnie Harris explores what leaders should prepare for. More
  • Breaking the cycle
    Claire Green says meaningful reform means moving beyond endless GCSE resits and tackling the causes of low attainment much earlier. More
  • The power of three
    As schools face growing financial and operational pressures, Emma Harrison explores how a new joint report makes the case for a more integrated approach to leadership across governance, education and business. More
  • The missing 'word'
    As debate continues about how to solve the teacher recruitment and retention crisis, pensions remain largely absent from the conversation. Melanie Moffatt argues that overlooking the Teachers' Pension Scheme (TPS) risks undermining one of the profession's greatest strengths. More
  • No phone zone
    With the government set to place existing mobile phone guidance on a statutory footing, we're keen to hear how schools are responding. Do you already have a policy in place, and what does it look like? Here, ASCL members have their say. More
  • Open-door leadership
    Deputy Headteacher Kate Johnston reflects on ASCL Council, shaping policy, and how an open-door approach underpins her leadership. More
  • Ofsted for Parents
    School leaders often feel they're held accountable for almost every aspect of young people's lives. But what if parents faced similar scrutiny? Carl Smith explores an Ofsted inspection for parents. More

School leaders often feel they’re held accountable for almost every aspect of young people’s lives. But what if parents faced similar scrutiny? Carl Smith explores an Ofsted inspection for parents.

Ofsted for Parents

Now, I get why schools need to be held to account. The government funds education, and it needs to ensure it’s getting value for money. I also believe every child needs a good parent. But how are parents held to account? 

Well, the answer is [drum roll]… they aren’t. There are some things parents can’t do by law but it’s a low bar and, generally, parenting is an accountability-free zone; no qualifications required. Nature helps us out a bit – most parents possess a basic instinct to love and protect their child – but, beyond that, the quality of parenting children receive is a bit of a lottery. 

So, since Ofsted is taking its responsibilities to inspect schools to ‘the next level’, I wondered whether it should inspect parents, too. 

I suggest that the inspectorate starts with a brief consultation – call it the Big Listen – preferably with some loaded questions to make sure it gets the right answers. Then, after six weeks (because it’s only fair to give parents enough time to prepare), it should inspect parents, perhaps starting with a six‑week pilot where the best parents could volunteer to be inspected, before quietly withdrawing once they realise what they’ve let themselves in for. 

As I am concerned about Ofsted’s workload, I think it should stick (broadly) to the same six areas it uses to inspect schools: inclusion, achievement, attendance (of parents), behaviour, personal development and wellbeing (of school staff), leadership and safeguarding. Parents could be rated as exceptional, strong (mentally not physically), good, meeting the expected standard, needing attention, or requiring urgent improvement. Outcomes would be emailed to all residents in their neighbourhood, before being laminated and discreetly displayed on their front door. 

Special measures at home 

As for frequency, I reckon if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, so an inspection every four years should be enough. They could even publish toolkits for parents and put on a few webinars, though parents could be assured that they should never prepare for inspection, just be their normal selves and enjoy the experience, unless they fail, in which case they wouldn’t enjoy it at all. 

Ofsted could also set up a system for schools to complain about parents, and even if the complaint was baseless, parents would be investigated and a record against them would be retained. Grounds for complaints about parents might include their child not doing their homework, not turning up to parents’ evening, or even not meeting their child’s needs. Survey responses could be submitted by other parents, ex‑partners, and the children themselves. 

Ofsted would expect the child’s home to be a calm and orderly environment, and children would be expected to make above-average progress, which might be problematic for 50% of the population, but, as we know, children only get one chance. Helpful charts could even be provided, so that parents could compare the quality of their parenting with similar parents elsewhere. 

Of course, if inspectors found children were on their phones, or parents were using their phones in front of their children, they would be automatically graded as ‘needing attention’ and inspectors could apply their ‘professional curiosity’ to monitor whether parents were applying their behaviour rules consistently. 

Naturally, parents would only receive 24 hours’ notice of an inspection, so they better not be working away, on holiday or be ill. Happily, to mitigate the stress involved, they could raise their concerns with the lead inspector or even contact a hotline. They could also appoint a friend as a nominee to support them. It wouldn’t change the outcome, but at least they would have been heard. Parents judged as ‘requiring urgent improvement’ would be placed into special measures and assigned a parenting improvement partner, who would check in fortnightly and nod sympathetically when required. 

Now, you might be thinking parents wouldn’t put up with this nonsense. People would probably stop having children altogether and that definitely wouldn’t be a good thing. However, a school leader can dream – usually somewhere between inspection frameworks, accountability measures, and the creeping realisation that we’re accountable for everyone else’s failings. 

Carl Smith is Principal of Casterton College Rutland 

Want the last word? 

Last Word always welcomes contributions from members. If you’d like to share your humorous observations of school life, email Permjit Mann at leader@ascl.org.uk 

ASCL offers a modest honorarium. 

LEADING READING