A former special adviser at the Department for Education has made a permanent move to Ofsted to become its director of strategy and engagement.
Rory Gribbell had moved to the watchdog on secondment last month to advise its new chief inspector, Sir Martyn Oliver.
He has now been given a permanent appointment at the schools inspectorate.
Mr Gribbell has been involved in Ofsted’s response to the concerns raised by the coroner in the Ruth Perry inquest, and he takes up the director of strategy and engagement role as the inspectorate prepares to launch a major “Big Listen” consultation on the future of inspection.
A former teacher, Mr Gribbell has worked as a special adviser to education secretary Gillian Keegan and her predecessor, Kit Malthouse.
He also worked as former schools minister Nick Gibb’s teacher in residence and has been head of education in the Downing Street Policy Unit.
Rory Gribbell gets Ofsted director job
Last year he left the special adviser role to Ms Keegan to take up a non-political civil service role as senior policy adviser in the Department for Education.
He was the department’s senior policy adviser on schools and multi-agency approaches, looking at policy design and implementation before his Ofsted secondment.
Since Sir Martyn took over at Ofsted, the inspectorate has announced a series of planned changes in response the inquest into Ms Perry’s death, with the coroner issuing a report warning that there was a risk of future deaths unless action was taken.
As part of this process, Ofsted is set to appoint an independent education expert to review its response to the headteacher’s death and its “internal policies and processes for responding to tragic incidents”.
