Ofsted 'to tackle' staff bullying

Ofsted chief, David Bell, says job cuts are adding to pressure

The English education watchdog, Ofsted, has promised to tackle bullying reported by its own staff.

But the chief inspector, David Bell, said budget cuts of £40m and 500 proposed job losses would create "more stress, more anxiety, more pressure".

He told the Commons education committee that two psychologists were working with staff.

One in five Ofsted employees told a survey in January they had been victims of bullying or harassment.

'Not wringing our hands'

Nearly two-thirds felt so stressed it was damaging their work.

The findings were worst among early-years employees. Ofsted took over inspections for this sector in 2001. The employees had previously worked for local authorities.

Mr Bell told the MPs: "We haven't just wrung our hands and said 'isn't this terrible'.

"We have set up work internally looking at the causes of bullying and harassment."

He added that he would not tolerate "quite unacceptable behaviour".

Robert Green, Ofsted's director of corporate services, said: "The bullying and harassment and more broadly cultural issues certainly stand out from that survey.

"We have been inviting people to talk in confidence about what they mean by bullying and work stress."

He added: "We say to ourselves we must apply internally the things that we know about and apply externally."

Mr Green said the budget cuts were not behind Ofsted's decision to reform school inspections to be "lighter touch" in future.

Plans to cut the number of inspectors in a team, to reduce the notice period given to schools before inspectors arrive and for much shorter inspections were under way before the cuts were announced in July, he said.

Ofsted employs 2,500 staff. More than 2,000 responded to the survey on bullying.