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Sir Michael Wilshaw: ‘Smear campaign against Ofsted is no surprise’ | Sir Michael Wilshaw: ‘Smear campaign against Ofsted is no surprise’ |
(about 11 hours later) | |
Sir Michael Wilshaw has hit back against “smears” over his performance as chief inspector of Ofsted, a day after it emerged via a leaked document that Michael Gove had considered unseating him. | Sir Michael Wilshaw has hit back against “smears” over his performance as chief inspector of Ofsted, a day after it emerged via a leaked document that Michael Gove had considered unseating him. |
The chief inspector of schools, a former headteacher, labelled the leak an attempt to undermine Ofsted’s independence and insisted he will not be swayed from criticising government policies such as free schools. | |
Wilshaw said: “The document leaked to the Guardian comes as no surprise to me. Indeed, I raised my concerns publicly about plots and smear campaigns against Ofsted and me personally by political advisers back in January. | |
“I am in good company. The prime minister and deputy prime minister have also come under fire from one particular former adviser to Michael Gove,” – a reference to Gove’s former special adviser Dominic Cummings. | |
The internal Department for Education memo leaked to the Guardian on Thursday contained strong criticisms of Wilshaw’s tenure as head of the schools regulator. In the document, dated October 2013 and circulated to senior officials, Cummings said he and schools minister Lord Nash had “serious concerns” about Ofsted’s operation. The memo argued that Wilshaw spent too much time giving interviews rather than running his organisation. Cummings was a key figure behind many of the reforms introduced by Gove, including free schools. Wilshaw said: “I didn’t come into this role to curry favour with particular vested interests. I took on this job with one single ambition: to improve the life chances of all children in this country.” | |
It is not the first time the chief inspector has complained about being undermined. Earlier this year, Wilshaw said he was “spitting blood” over what he saw as DfE attempts to sabotage him. | |
David Laws, the Liberal Democrat schools minister, came to Wilshaw’s defence. “It’s crucial that Ofsted acts as a strong and fair educational watchdog, not as the Department for Education’s poodle. Sir Michael Wilshaw is doing a good job and successfully resisting pressure from some on the right who seem to want him to give their favourite schools an easy ride,” he said. | |
“The job of the chief inspector is to hold all schools to account, without fear or favour, and bullying from politicians or former advisers can only make that job more difficult.” | “The job of the chief inspector is to hold all schools to account, without fear or favour, and bullying from politicians or former advisers can only make that job more difficult.” |
Cummings denied the memo had been a personal attack on Wilshaw. “It is obvious that Ofsted is causing significant damage to schools and it is sad that, like many failing chief executives, Wilshaw interprets evidence of his organisation’s failure as a personal attack on himself,” he said on Friday. | |
“Gove did everything to try to support Wilshaw and defended him against the many people who said he was not up to the job. Wilshaw falsely claims he was put under ‘political pressure’ but the only pressure we put him under was to reform his failing organisation to stop damage to schools.” | |
Tristram Hunt, shadow education secretary, appears set on raising the attacks on Wilshaw in parliament – most likely during the next education question time involving Gove’s successor, Nicky Morgan – after he described the memo as part of a “systematic attempt to undermine Ofsted”. | |
“The press briefings against Sir Michael Wilshaw, the sacking of [former Ofsted chair] Sally Morgan and this revelation: the evidence is now unequivocal. It’s totally unacceptable and ministers should come to the House of Commons to explain to parliament the actions of this government,” he said. | |
Wilshaw hinted that he believed Ofsted’s inspections of free schools and academies – both policies supported by the government – were a cause of the rift. | |
“I will not allow Ofsted to be politicised and I will not be swayed from making the difficult decisions that are sometimes necessary to raise standards in our country. Nor will I be deterred from shining a spotlight on poor performance, whether in academy chains, free schools or local authority schools, no matter how uncomfortable this may be for some people,” Wilshaw said. | |
Wilshaw, 68, was appointed as chief inspector by Gove in 2012, after a successful career as a head teacher. His contract continues until 2016. | |
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