A reply (of sorts) from Ofsted

Today, following my complaint to Ofsted about the ridiculous cartoon BSL-based consultation documents that they’ve been putting online – they wrote to me.

The letter is unfortunately, the same as other people have received. It’s a just-about acknowledgment that they did something that maybe some people didn’t like – and a sort-of promise not to do it again.

I’ll wait eagerly to see if they do…

Unfortunately, at no point do they acknowledge their key failures… that they failed to recognise the true nature of BSL… or that they ignored the real experts in the matter: the Deaf community itself.

Rather, they are keen to point out how good they’ve been in other areas, and they also let me know that the consultation that the document referred to was over – which was nice, although completely irrelevant.

Nice to see, too, that the letter is signed by someone responsible for disabled people.

Perhaps that old chestnut excuses what they did – after all, those who are disabled should accept any kind of help right? Even if it’s not ideal… right?

Anyway – here’s the letter. I’m afraid it’s not very inspiring.

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Dear Dr Gulliver

Thank you for your email and letter of 13 June regarding our British Sign Language (BSL)-based versions of the adoption support agency consultation for children and young people.

I am sorry that this attempt to broaden Ofsted’s communication with young people has not been successful. Ofsted has listened carefully to your reply and to others on the same topic. We will amend our future actions as a result.

You may be interested to hear of other developments in our communication with children and young people who are BSL users. These include the recording of the questionnaires used in school inspections. These may be viewed through the following links:

www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/bsl-and-subtitles-independent-schools-questionnaire-for-pupils

www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/bsl-and-subtitles-schools-questionnaire-for-pupils

www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/bsl-and-subtitles-questionnaire-for-boarders-and-residential-pupils

We have also recorded the questionnaires that we use for children’s homes, fostering and adoption inspections. These questionnaires are made available to children and young people at a set time each year.

Thank you again for raising this matter with us. As you will know, the adoption support agency consultation has now closed. We will give further consideration to how we can engage and consult with BSL users in our future consultations. Your feedback will help us to make improvements.

Yours sincerely

Charlie Henry HMI

Principal Officer, Development

Disability and Specialist Educational Needs

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