Ofsted inspections will be halted until assessors have been properly trained in protecting the wellbeing of school staff, the watchdog’s new chief has announced, after a headteacher’s suicide.
Martyn Oliver becomes the chief inspector of education in England on Tuesday, and has pledged to launch an inquiry into Ofsted’s involvement in the death of Ruth Perry.
Last month a coroner ruled the inspection of Perry’s school had contributed to her death, and issued a “prevention of future deaths” notice listing a string of issues for the body to address urgently. Unions later called for all inspections to be suspended in the interim.
Oliver said he would heed their call until staff received “immediate training and support” on alleviating the stress put on teachers during inspections, with only emergency safeguarding visits going ahead when schools reopen this week.
“We’re not going to start inspecting until that initial training has been put in place,” Oliver said. “But this training is not just a one-off, it is part of a series that will significantly upskill all of our inspectors in how to manage the wellbeing of those we’re inspecting.”
He described how, as the former chief executive of a chain of academies, hearing of the death of a fellow school leader had come as a “great shock”.
Perry’s family, including her sister Prof Julia Waters, said Ofsted’s handling of its inspection led to a fatal erosion in Perry’s mental health, after the school she had led for more than a decade – Caversham primary in Reading – was labelled inadequate.
Oliver said responding to Perry’s death was a critical moment for the inspectorate and that Ofsted needed to make a “fresh start” by overhauling its procedures to win back the trust of the teaching profession and parents.
