I’ve worked in school governance.
I’ve seen a HT employ someone who was on the Barred List, due to a complete lack of good safeguarding practice. Our children are entitled to be safe at school above all else. Safeguarding is not negotiable. Whether it should be so intrinsically linked to all other aspects of school life to the extent that safeguarding alone is a pass/fail issue for Offered is another question.
I think the issue about standards in schools is much more fundamental.
Chairs of Governors are AFAIK volunteers who are appointed by other volunteers. They can bring all sorts of ‘baggage’ To the role and aren’t necessarily good at the job or supportive of the staff.
Governors must be the largest volunteer workforce in the country. No real qualifications or experience are required, and yet they hold so much responsibility for school leadership.
The HT role is an absolute beast of a job. Lonely, responsible often for everything from the curriculum, to safeguarding, to the state of the roof… no training can really prepare anyone for that. Hence many schools become bullying fiefdoms run by HTs who’ll do anything to get through the next Ofsted.
And in the process of staffing this rather precarious HT workforce, we take lots of talented senior teachers out of the classroom, who then become deskilled.
School governance requires complete reform. There should be ‘School Managers’ and ‘Heads of Curriculum’. Personally I’d make teaching a pretty-much 8.40-4.30 year-round job without the long school closure periods for teachers, and with much more regular hours. The crazy unbounded life of a teacher is completely unsustainable and open to abuse.
As for an inspectorate, that should be redesigned once the above is sorted. I don’t agree that inspectors can only be former teachers… they need to we well-trained, professional and empathetic. There should be much more hands-on support for schools who are struggling.
And teachers too need to be accountable. ‘Only’ failing on safeguarding is not the right mindset… safeguarding is at the heart of life at school. If there’s no record of a check happening, or if it didn’t happen, that’s just not good enough. All teachers should be good teachers. Maybe they’ll have a fighting chance with some ambitious structural change.
The home-school contract needs attention too. We have facilities for great universal education in this country and that’s sometimes taken for granted by some families. However holistic support for struggling families is also critical.
All of this takes political will, beyond the life of any one government. Which politicians have the will to make this happen?