Teachers and social workers shouldn't be afraid to shame bad parents, says Ofsted boss

• Ofsted chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw told MPs that social workers and headteacher need to tell parents when they are behaving badly
• Said communities should play help support problem families
• 'Families need to know that they can't go on treating their children like this'
• Government should also consider rewarding 'good citizens' to knock on their neighbours' doors and tell them they are being bad parents

By ANNA EDWARDS

PUBLISHED: 10:34, 23 January 2014 | UPDATED: 13:16, 23 January 2014

 
 
 

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Sir Michael Wilshaw said communities should play more of a role in supporting problem families

Teachers and social workers should tell people that they are bad parents and to stop failing their children, the head of Ofsted has warned.

Ofsted chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw told MPs that, as a former head teacher, he 'saw the result of children being brought up badly by their parents' and would routinely tell parents when they were failing.

He also said communities should play more of a role in supporting problem families, referring to the 'old phrase "a child is brought up by the village".'

Sir Michael said third parties needed to get involved when they saw children being treated badly by their parents - such as youngsters not being sent to school.

'These families need to know that they can't go on treating their children like this, they can't go on behaving in this manner and they've got to hit the targets that are being set by social workers,' he said.

'As a headteacher I used to tell parents that they were behaving badly and that they were bad parents.

'It didn't often go down extremely well but nevertheless that was my responsibility and it's a responsibility of social workers.'

 

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'As an ex-headteacher I saw the result of children being brought up badly by their parents, so society has got to worry about what's happening in families and families in particular parts of the country, and children's services have got a part to play in helping and supporting those families, but families have got a huge part to play and communities have got a huge part to play in supporting children.'

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The Ofsted boss said headteachers and society has must worry about what's happening in families and raise concerns

The Government should also consider rewarding 'good citizens' to knock on their neighbours' doors and demand why their children are not in school, the Chief Inspector of Education has said.

He told the Commons Education Committee: 'Well, communities have got a big part to play in supporting our most difficult families and most vulnerable children.

'In my experience in the most difficult communities there are always going to be good people who want to help.

'How do you incentivise good citizens, good people, good family members to engage with the most difficult members of society, and that's a policy issue for Government.

'How do you financially incentivise these people to get up in the morning, knock on the neighbours door, and say your children are not up yet, they've not had their breakfast yet, why aren't you taking them to school?

Sir Michael, who was appointed Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Education, Children's Services and Skills in January 2012, was speaking as he appeared at the Commons Education Committee to give evidence on Ofsted's recent report on the state of children's services.

He said that in the wake of high profile cases such as the death of Baby P, children's services have never been under so much pressure.

He said: 'The national consciousness of what can go badly wrong in terms of children's services is much greater than it's ever been because of the high profile deaths that have taken place over the past few years, and as a consequence of those tragedies the volume of cases under scrutiny have gone up, and the pressure on children's services have gone up and our inspection frameworks are much more rigorous as a result of that.

'We've also got to worry about the parlous state of children's services throughout the country and worry about those children who don't die and don't hit the headlines but actually are going through miserable lives because they are not being properly supported.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2544499/Teachers-social-workers-shouldnt-afraid-tell-people-theyre-bad-parents-says-Ofsted-boss.html#ixzz2rsZHtSsC
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