Making sure that we give all children a top quality education is no small challenge. On the whole, we do well at educating through our schools and universities, but we cannot be at all complacent about maintaining standards. A quick glance at Scotland tells us a great deal about how world leading education standards can slip alarmingly quickly and so continued care and attention is needed to ensure we maintain our standards. This is especially important as we are viewed increasingly on a world stage, not just a domestic one.

I meet frequently with school heads, either individually or as a group, keen to help when they have problems and issues. The relatively low funding formula for Worcestershire schools has always been an issue. But issues affecting schools range from national budgets and curriculum setting, through to local issues such as maintenance from the county council and traffic problems around the school gates.

In the search for excellence, one of the key components is Ofsted, responsible for ensuring standards are met. Parents will be familiar with Ofsted reports on their children’s’ schools. I’m told by head teachers that Wednesday lunch is a key moment in any school week – the moment at which they can be sure that they will not have a snap Ofsted inspection that week. However, for a school rated as outstanding, they may not have an inspection for years, whilst those rated lower will have regular inspections. Ofsted is broadly a good thing as it ensures continuity of standards across the country. It would be hopeless if each county had their own inspectors. After all, its no good being rated ‘outstanding’ in your county only to find that your county’s ‘outstanding’ falls short of another county’s ‘adequate’.

But for Ofsted to work properly, it must be a trusted brand. I have been alarmed over the last few months that several local schools have, independently of each other, come to me raising complaints about their Ofsted inspection. One complaint about a poorer than expected Ofsted report may be just a whinge; two may be co-incidence; three starts to be a trend. I have now had five schools with legitimate complaints about their Ofsted inspections. This looks like a serious problem

I have asked the Education Secretary to look into this. It needs to be done swiftly. Any more contamination of the Ofsed brand and the reports will become meaningless.