Education ministers have ordered another rethink of England's school inspection system after a wave of complaints from teachers and headteachers who said recent changes were placing unacceptable strain on staff.
Lucy Powell, the education secretary, has told Ofsted to "go back to the drawing board" amid mounting concern that alterations to inspection arrangements overseen by her predecessor, Bridget Phillipson, were creating problems for school leaders and contributing to damaging levels of stress.
The schools regulator, Ofsted, is responsible for monitoring and reporting on the quality of education. The decision to revisit the inspection approach comes after what ministers described as a barrage of feedback from the teaching profession, which raised alarms about the impact of the new system on mental health and workplace pressures.
This will be the second overhaul of the inspection arrangements in a year, underscoring continuing tensions between government policymakers, the inspectorate and the education workforce. Officials said the instruction signals a fresh round of review and revision, although detailed changes and a timetable for implementation have not been published.
Ministers and Ofsted will now need to work through the concerns raised by schools while balancing the regulator's role in maintaining standards. The steps taken next are likely to be closely watched by headteachers, teachers' unions and parents who have voiced apprehension about the current inspection framework.