Ofsted incorrectly reported it had inspected schools every five years

Councillor Anne Burns, the cabinet member for Children’s Services, who is also a Barrow Borough councillor, said Ofsted should be inspecting every single school so parents can choose where to send their children.

The councillor’s comments follow a report from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) which suggested the school inspection body was losing credibility.

The PAC report, published on Friday, claims there have been “clear shortcomings” in Ofsted’s performance.

It says fewer inspections than planned were completed and Ofsted failed to meet its targets for how often schools should be inspected.

Cllr Burns said: “Parents need to be provided with the correct information so they can decide where to send their children to be educated.

“I think if we are going to have the regulated system for education then every school needs to be on the register for inspection no matter their rating.

“Doing this will allow schools with lower ratings to improve and encourage schools with higher ratings to keep up their standards.

“I do believe that Ofsted has had its resources cut away but we still need to provide a top class education.”

The report found Ofsted had incorrectly reported to Parliament that it had met the statutory target for re-inspecting schools every five years.

Amanda Spielman, the Chief Inspector of Schools, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the agency did “not recognise (the) picture” painted in the report, which found that budget cuts had led to less attention being paid to the value of inspections.

In response a spokesman from the government’s Department for Education said: “The Education Secretary has made clear that Ofsted is the only body able to provide an independent, rounded judgment of a school’s performance.

“The focus of Ofsted should always be on under-performance so that no child has to be in a bad school.”