Ofsted appointment

In June 2016, Spielman was selected by the Education Secretary, Nicky Morgan, to take over as Chief Inspector of Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) to replace Sir Michael Wilshaw. Following a pre-appointment hearing, Spielman's nomination was rejected by the Education Select Committee which expressed concerns about her suitability, citing her lack of teaching experience and her failure to show "passion" and lack of understanding for the "complex role".^[16] Mrs Morgan, however, dismissed such objections and in her capacity as Cabinet minister wrote to Neil Carmichael, the Committee's chairman, confirming her appointment of Mrs Spielman.^[17]

In 2021 it was reported she was seeking an extension to her five-year tenure due to the Covid crisis interrupting the roll out of her new inspection framework.^[18] A two-year extension was confirmed in May.^[19]

Policy positions

In 2018, Spielman supported a primary school headteacher's right to set a uniform policy that did not permit hijab for pupils in Key Stage 1 (ages 4–7). The UK's National Education Union (NEU) described this as “naked racism dressed up as liberalism”.^[20]

In 2018, she backed a ban on mobile phones in classrooms. In the same speech, she urged strict pupil discipline, saying "there is nothing kind about letting a few pupils spoil school for everyone else".^[21]

In December 2018, Spielman asserted that basic parenting duties should not be outsourced to schools and teachers: for instance, potty training was “a normal part of parenting in every other country” and it was “startling” that any British parents could allow their children to continue wearing nappies for years.^[22]

In 2019, she said that students who had sexual assault allegations made against them should be free to continue attending school along with their accusers. This contradicted Ofsted's own guidance and led to criticism that her lack of understanding of basic safeguarding procedures made her unfit to be head of Ofsted.^[23]

In June 2021 she declared Years 11 and 13 should be kept in schools despite the cancellation of exams and the substantial extra workload imposed on teachers as a result, and said Ofsted would ‘want to know how’ schools were using contact time with Year 11.^[24] This was strongly criticised by teachers as another example of her ignorance of the realities of teaching given that most of Years 11 and 13 saw no point in staying after exams had been cancelled.^[25]

Following the death of Headteacher Ruth Perry in 2023, Spielman acknowledged that "a culture of fear exists over the watchdog's inspections".^[26] A coroner investigating the death by suicide of the Headteacher found that the Ofsted inspection of Perry's school "contributed" to her death and found "the inspection "lacked fairness, respect and sensitivity" and was at times "rude and intimidating""^[27] Perry's death had resulted in calls for one-word inspection judgements given by Ofsted to be scrapped, something Speilman insisted "was up the government" to change, and that such one-word judgements "weren't wrong".^[28][29]

Speilman's term as head of OFSTED expired at the end of December 2023 and she was replaced by Martyn Oliver,^[3] who, in a change of tone from his predessor, immediately ordered a suspension in inspections whilst training was improved.^[30]