Special measures

Special measures is a status applied by regulators of public services in Britain to providers who fall short of acceptable standards.

Ofsted, the schools inspection agency for England and some British Overseas Territories, and Estyn, the schools inspection agency for Wales, apply the term special measures to schools under their jurisdictions when they consider the school has failed to provide an acceptable standard of teaching, has poor facilities, or otherwise fails to meet the minimum standards for education set by the government and other agencies, when they judge the school lacks the leadership capacity amongst its management to ensure improvements. A school subject to special measures will have regular short-notice Ofsted or Estyn inspections to monitor its improvement. The senior managers and teaching staff can be dismissed and the school governors replaced by an appointed executive committee. If poor performance continues the school may be closed as in the case of the Frank Montgomery School in Kent.

The current circumstances under which a school may be placed in special measures, and the procedures to follow, are stipulated by the Education Act 2005. Prior to 2005 special measures were applied to any school which was failing to supply an acceptable level of education; potential for improvement under current leadership was not taken into account. Under the new rules, schools demonstrating such potential are instead given a notice to improve and reinspected after a year.

Once an institution has been placed in special measures, they are presented with an action plan by the Local Authority detailing the key areas they need to develop in order to leave the category. Monitoring of this action plan then passes to HMI (Her Majesty’s Inspectors) who visit the school typically once a term for 1-2 days to evaluate progress. Once HMI are satisfied that the action plan has been completed and all points satisfactorily addressed, then they will refer the school back to Ofsted and ask them to schedule a second Section 5 Inspection. If Ofsted agree with HMI’s judgement, the school is then removed from the special measures category. It is worth noting that during an Inspection an HMI can change the nature of the Inspection to a Section 5, and remove the school from Special Measures upon completion.

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