NAHT can today announce the outcome of a landmark legal challenge brought by one of its members, Ms Kelly Vaughan, against Ofsted and three individual inspectors.

Ms Vaughan sought the assistance of NAHT and with their legal advisers submitted a claim in the London Central County Court for disability discrimination. The claim, supported by the union, related to breaches of the Equality Act 2010 following Ofsted’s inspection of Pool Hayes Primary School in July 2023, including failure to make reasonable adjustments to accommodate Ms. Vaughan’s disability, harassment related to her disability and discrimination arising in consequence of disability.

Ofsted has agreed to pay both damages and Ms. Vaughan’s legal costs. They have also agreed to ensure:

1. All its employees and inspectors undertake mandatory equality, diversity, and inclusion training, with regular refreshers.
2. Ofsted will take into account the learning arising from Ms. Vaughan’s concerns arising from the July 2023 inspection when developing organisational processes.
3. Any future inspector will have received new training before carrying out an inspection of Pool Hayes Primary School.
4. The Regional Director or another member of Ofsted’s executive committee agrees to meet with a range of charities with knowledge of the impact of living with disabilities in the workplace to assist with ongoing organisational change.

The inspectorate has also agreed to issue a letter of apology to Ms Vaughan.

Paul Whiteman, leader of the school leaders’ union, the NAHT said: “Whilst I am pleased that this outcome will have a positive and lasting impact on how inspections are carried out in future, this case illustrates just how far Ofsted needs to go in order to fix its deeply entrenched culture. The refusal to put in place straightforward reasonable adjustments and the unacceptable conduct of inspectors during the inspection was nothing short of a disgrace.

“The fact that NAHT had to support our member in bringing a legal claim before Ofsted was willing to take any action at all shows what our members are all too often up against when it comes to poor inspector conduct. Ofsted’s refusal to listen and its determination to try to defend the actions of its inspectors for so long raises serious concerns and shows that despite the recent change in leadership the organisation has a very long way to go if it is to rebuild trust with the profession.

“NAHT will always stand up for its members where there is clear evidence that they have been treated unfairly and support them in taking the necessary action.”

Kelly Vaughan, headteacher at Pool Hayes Primary School, said: “My last year was an extremely challenging one and no other education professional should through the same thing. I’m very grateful to the NAHT for supporting me unwaveringly over the past 12 months. As leaders and as professionals, we hope to be treated fairly by those who come to inspect us and unfortunately this hasn’t always been the case. All schools deserve a fair, consistent application of the Ofsted Handbook by inspectors during an inspection. I hope the changes won in my case help to ensure Ofsted deliver positive change in their wider culture as well as for other education professionals living with disabilities.”

Notes to editors:

Ms. Vaughan is the Headteacher of Pool Hayes Primary School and suffers with Multiple Sclerosis.

In July 2023, Ms. Vaughan was suffering from laryngitis causing a relapse of her MS symptoms impairing her co-ordination and thought processes and / or her MS caused her to have disproportionate laryngitis symptoms.

An Ofsted inspection was due to take place at the school on 11 and 12 July 2023. By 10 July 2023, Ms. Vaughan had been suffering with laryngitis for a number of days and as a result applied for a deferral of the inspection. This was refused by Ofsted.

At the outset of the inspection on 11 July 2023 Ms. Vaughan explained to the inspection team that she was suffering from cognitive processing difficulties and was unable to multi-task as her laryngitis had adversely affected her MS symptoms.

Despite this, inspectors proceeded with the inspection, firing a series of questions and requests for multiple documents, then, while Ms. Vaughan sought to locate them, an inspector quickly fired a series of questions at her: some questions related to the school subjects he had requested documents for, and other questions were unrelated.

Ms. Vaughan again explained that the impact of her laryngitis, combined with her underlying MS, meant she could not multi-task. She commented that she was unable to think clearly about what was being asked, as other questions and requests were being issued before she had time to process the previous request. Rather than taking this into account, the inspector sped up his questions. He complained that he had been waiting too long for responses and said he needed to move on to other meetings.

When Ms. Vaughan complained that she was finding the situation stressful, the inspector laughed, snorted, and held his hands up, all in a derisory manner.

These events left Ms. Vaughan feeling humiliated and targeted. The whole ordeal further exacerbated Ms. Vaughan’s MS symptoms.

She complained to Ofsted and was supported by her colleagues in the Senior Leadership Team, however, Ofsted denied that they had had done anything wrong.