At the beginning of February, Ofsted shared how it intends to reform the inspection process through the introduction of report cards and has put their initial plans out for consultation. Simultaneously, the Secretary of State, Bridget Phillipson, outlined in her speech to the Centre for Social Justice, her vision around standards for the school system and within that, how accountability will take shape in future through the introduction of accountability principles, school profiles and school improvement through intervention; views have also been sought from the sector through consultation, this is in addition to the Ofsted consultation. With so much change across the system and an opportunity to shape accountability across education for the better, this breakfast briefing for members of our three national networks, offers time and space to take stock of the accountability reforms so far and to reflect on the role trust leaders have in shaping this nationally but vitally, locally too.

Our breakfast briefing will be led by Alice Gregson, CEO of Forum Strategy, and will begin with an overview of the proposed changes around accountability so far and will open up to some discussion about your views and experiences as trust leaders in relation to this. We will then move into a discussion about where trust leaders can influence and shape their own approach to accountability whilst staying cognisant of the national landscape.

Lee Owston, National Director for Education at Ofsted, joins us to discuss the recent proposals and current consultation around the report cards, touching on the implications of this for trust leaders and opening up a discussion with trust leaders about how you see this working for your trusts and the schools and community you work with and for.

Jon Andrews, Head of Analysis and Director for School System and Performance at the Education Policy Institute (EPI), also joins us to discuss their recent ‘Reforming Accountability’ report and how some of their findings apply in the current landscape as well as looking ahead to how things may start to take shape in future too. Sharing their benchmarking tool for report cards, Jon will discuss how trusts and schools can include but go beyond the Ofsted metrics to support accountability measures that matter the most to trusts, schools and communities, linking this to Forum Strategy’s work around pure accountability. We will also share some examples of where localities have started to shape their own report card equivalents, seizing the opportunity to look at how (and what) information is shared about schools and their contexts.