The Ofsted SEND scandal that shows the public was sold a lie

There are certain issues that we as a country have accepted as our national priorities. The poor state of our public finances, for example. The cost of living, the health service, and crime. And rightly so: we feel their impact the most.

Further down that list – consistently so, based on YouGov’s polling of the most important issues facing our country – is education. This is a grave error of national judgment.

Our public attitude towards education is driven by a combination of perception and lived experience. Do we have a problem with education in this country? For most people, the answer is no because the quality of our schools and our teachers has risen markedly over the past 30 years. The average parent has a good experience of their local school. Indeed, the previous government will trumpet education as a national success story.

When Labour scrapped the one-word Ofsted overall-effectiveness judgements shortly after the 2024 election, 91 per cent of schools were rated “good” or “outstanding”. A sure sign of high standards for all our children – or so the story went. Because it was just that: a story, a piece of fiction. The public was being sold a lie. Yes, our education system serves the average child well. But is that really the limit of our ambition?

When 90 per cent of “good” or “outstanding” schools can include schools in the bottom 1 per cent for exam results, you know that the old measure of success has outlived its validity. But more importantly than that, it failed to take into account how our education system is supporting all of our country’s children, including the poorest, those with special educational needs and disabilities.

For too long, inclusion has been at the margins of accountability, and by extension, of school standards.

Results matter. Academic rigour matters. And inclusion also matters. Inclusion and attainment are not competing priorities, as the best schools prove. They refuse to lower expectations; they support pupils properly, and their results tell their own story.

And when that doesn’t happen – when our system provides the wrong incentives and turns a blind eye, as it has done – it’s children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and those from the most disadvantaged families and communities who have their chances of succeeding in life damaged. School absence levels for children with SEND are around twice that of other children. Nearly a third of young people with SEND are not in education, employment or training (NEET) – again, twice the rate of others.

What sort of system claims “high standards” while failing such a high proportion of its most vulnerable young people, and what needs to change? Accountability shapes behaviour. What you measure determines what schools prioritise, and we have a system that doesn’t recognise the hard work and expertise of supporting children with SEND or additional needs

Inclusion, high expectations and proper, early support are a route to stronger performance for all children. Schools that build cultures of belonging and early intervention do not see standards slip. They see them strengthen.

So I welcome Ofsted’s revitalised inspection framework and its new standalone “inclusion” judgement – now given the same weight as areas like curriculum and teaching. The move to scrutinise how schools meet the needs of all their students is an important and necessary shift. Inclusion must be treated as a marker of quality.

But inspection alone is not enough. The forthcoming Schools White Paper must bring coherence to the system, strengthening accountability, increasing funding and raising expectations.

These reforms provide a rare opportunity to take the best of what’s working and overhaul what’s not. That means building the capacity of schools to meet a broader range of needs and stating plainly that high standards only have meaning when they apply to every child.

And after that, we should be unequivocal about what excellence looks like. A school that posts impressive GCSE results by quietly removing pupils who challenge the data is not outstanding. It is protecting its averages. True excellence is found where leaders keep children in school, insist on high expectations, provide effective support and secure strong outcomes across all groups. That is the benchmark.

And if we can do this, if we can truly deliver high standards for all children, it’s our economy, our health service, our fight against crime that will benefit.

High standards for some are not high standards at all – and it is the latter that should be our national priority.

Sir Michael Wilshaw was a teacher for 43 years and served as His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills from 2012 to 2016