Ofsted Inspections Paused Following Suicide of Headteacher

Photograph of Ruth Perry attached to the fence outside John Rankin Schools in Newbury, Berkshire on Dec. 7, 2023. Andrew Matthews/PA Wire

Ofsted has announced a pause on all school inspections until late January to allow for its staff to receive mental health awareness training following the suicide of headteacher Ruth Perry.

The organisation’s new boss, Sir Martyn Oliver, called for “more empathy” to be shown by inspectors toward school leaders and teachers following the Coroner’s verdict into the death of Ms. Perry, which found that the inspection process contributed toward her suicide.

In an announcement put out to coincide with Sir Martyn’s first day in a planned five-year stint as chief inspector, Ofsted said its new leader will embark on what it called “a Big Listen, with all sectors Ofsted inspects and regulates at the start of his tenure.”

It added, “As an immediate priority, the new chief inspector will focus on Ofsted’s response to the coroner’s inquest into the tragic death of Ruth Perry.”

Ofsted added that routine school inspections in the spring term will begin “later in January to accommodate mental health awareness training for inspectors in the first week of term.”

It said that Sir Martyn will lead initial training for all inspectors, with sessions to include training and support from Mental Health First Aid England, who will lead “a rolling programme of further mental health awareness training for all inspectors.”

‘No Reason to Doubt’

The announcement, which has been broadly welcomed by teaching unions, marks a change in tone from previous Ofsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman, who said there was “no reason to doubt” the inspection that took place before the death of Ms. Perry and that its “findings were secure.”

Ms. Perry had not been known to suffer from any “relevant” mental health problems before she took her own life in Jan. 2023 after her Reading school, Caversham Primary, was downgraded from “outstanding” to “inadequate.”

In a Prevention of Future Deaths Report, issued following the inquest into Ms. Perry’s death, Berkshire Coroner Heidi Connor made a series of observations concerning the inspection process which she believes should be changed to reduce the likelihood of similar suicides happening.

The report finds, “There is very little training by Ofsted, and no written policy, regarding management of school leader anxiety during inspections.”

It goes on to raise other concerns, including that there was no mechanism to pause the inspection process due to the anxiety displayed by Ms. Perry during the process and Ofsted’s confidentiality requirements between the inspection and the publication of the report.

Ms. Conner found that Ms. Perry’s employer, Reading Borough Council, “Clearly felt that Ofsted’s decision was wrong and unfair, but did not provide any comment on the draft report, despite asking for the opportunity to do so.”

Many teachers and their unions have criticised the Ofsted inspection process not only in the wake of Ms. Perry’s death, but for many years before, claiming it puts undue stress on teachers and school leaders.

A former primary school teacher, who recently quit the profession to retrain as an educational psychologist after more than ten years, told The Epoch Times she witnessed the mental health of several colleagues suffer because of their “fears” around inspections.

Speaking anonymously, Laura (not her real name) said: “I have seen ill health in teachers as a direct result of ’measures’ put in place by headteachers or subject leaders in preparation for Ofsted. It was maybe not the inspection itself, but the fear in headteachers that led to taking things to ridiculous levels in the schools I worked in.”

Laura, who was a head of department for the past six years before handing in her notice, recalls, “A year two class teacher I was training with stayed up the entire night for a stupid, over-the-top show lesson, and then two days later, she went off sick.

Current System is Too Reductive

“The following year, she returned as a teaching assistant, and was very mentally ill.”

She recalls that in anticipation of an Oftsed inspection, she once drove around her town in the middle of the night, “looking for suitable rubble to recreate a collapse of the leaning Tower of Pisa in order to create an immersive lesson—just one ridiculous thing I was part of.”

Laura said she believes schools should be inspected in some capacity, to ensure good practice, but that the current system is too reductive.

“It isn’t the Ofsted process that has the issues, it is the way they have the potential to impact inaccurately and unnecessarily on a school and everything it does.

“I think schools have a blame culture that needs addressing. If a school truly needs improving, that should be accepted and developed rather than the academy trust blaming the head, the head blaming the subject leaders, who blame other teachers, who blame kids and parents ... it’s like divide and conquer rather than working through it together.

“The result seems to be far from what is best for the children involved in it all.”

Speaking to the BBC in his first interview as the new head of Ofsted, Sir Martyn said: “Ultimately, we have to be about high standards and say to parents ’these are the standards that are being provided.' But I think we can do that in a way that is far more empathetic.”