Ofsted has today responded to a report by the coroner in the Ruth Perry inquest, which warned of a future death risk unless action was taken by the watchdog.
Coroner Heidi Connor issued a prevention of future deaths report, following the inquest finding that an Ofsted inspection likely contributed to Ms Perry’s death.
The headteacher took her own life after an inspection that led to her school, Caversham Primary, being downgraded from “outstanding” to “inadequate”.
Here is how Ofsted has responded to each of the coroner’s seven areas of concern.
1. Safeguarding inspection
The watchdog has revealed it plans to launch an internal review on how it inspects safeguarding.
The move comes in response to the coroner’s regulation 28 report concern that classifying safeguarding as a limiting judgement means that a school judged to be “good” in all areas apart from safeguarding could receive the same “inadequate” grade as a school that was “dreadful in all respects”.
Currently, if inspectors judge a school’s safeguarding to be ineffective, it results in both the leadership and management grade and the overall inspection grade being “inadequate”.
In response to Ms Perry’s death, Ofsted had already said it would return within three months to schools judged “inadequate” on safeguarding but that were “good” in all other areas to see if the issues have been dealt with.
The review will look at whether Ofsted should produce a separate, standalone judgement on safeguarding and decouple it from the leadership and management grade.
Ofsted said it plans to complete the safeguarding inspection review in March, meaning there is time to seek views on its conclusions from school leaders and staff as part of its Big Listen consultation exercise, which is running until June.
2. New policy for pausing inspections
Ofsted has today published a new policy for pausing inspections where “a serious issue has been identified that requires substantial action to be taken”.
The policy was produced with the input of the Association of School and College Leaders, the NAHT school leaders’ union and the Confederation of School Trusts.
It says that inspections will only be paused in exceptional circumstances.
These are likely to include circumstances that compromise Ofsted’s ability to gather sufficient evidence to reach valid and reliable judgements, and where the headteacher (or other leaders) require support from their academy trust or local council.
According to Ofsted, in most circumstances where a pause is granted, the inspection should resume on the next working day. However, the length of the pause may be up to five working days, depending on “leaders’ capacity to maintain the typical day-to-day operations of the school and/or inspector availability”.
The policy says the lead inspector must be aware of who is responsible for the wellbeing and/or professional oversight of the headteacher - ie, the responsible body for the school.
If a school or responsible body wants to request a pause to an inspection, they should normally ask the lead inspector. If the issue is connected with the lead inspector or the inspection itself, and cannot be resolved with the lead inspector, the school or responsible body should contact a senior inspector using the number provided during the inspection notification call.
The coroner’s report previously raised concerns about an “almost complete absence” of Ofsted training for pausing inspections when school leaders are distressed, or for inspectors to be able to spot signs of distress.
Earlier this year, Ofsted’s new chief inspector, Sir Martyn Oliver, paused the resumption of inspections until next week. This was to allow inspectors to undergo training designed to help them identify and respond to signs of distress in school leaders and staff.
Ofsted said today that all inspectors need to have completed the training before they can lead an inspection, and any inspector who has not completed the training by the end of March will be prevented from being involved in a school visit.
Ofsted also said it will set up a long-term development programme for inspectors that helps them support school leaders’ wellbeing.
3. Ensuring schools can raise concerns during an inspection
Last month, Ofsted launched a national helpline that gives leaders with concerns direct access to a senior leader at the watchdog, who is independent of the relevant inspection.
However, the inspectorate said today that it recognises it needs “to do more to help the sector feel comfortable doing this”.
Its report today added: “We want leaders to know that, if they raise a concern or complaint, it will be dealt with professionally and swiftly, and that the choice to raise a concern will not impact negatively on the judgements made by Ofsted about their school.”
Ofsted also said that through its planned Big Listen consultation, it will ask the sector if other things could help improve confidence in being able to raise concerns.
4. Confidentiality requirement after inspection
The coroner warned that school leaders may fear discussing Ofsted outcomes with colleagues outside the school unless it was “expressly dealt with in written policy”.
Ofsted said it updated its handbooks last June after identifying that leaders were unclear about who they could share provisional inspection outcomes with. The watchdog said its guidance now states “that leaders can share provisional outcomes with whomever they deem appropriate, including people unconnected with a school’s work”.
It said today that throughout 2024 and 2025, it will use webinars, events and communications to ensure this message is clear.
5. The wait for an inspection report to be published
Another area of concern identified by the coroner was the length of time between an inspection being carried out and the report being published.
Ofsted said changes to its complaints process, announced in November, will allow it to publish reports more quickly.
It said that the complexity of some inspection findings meant they would need more time. However, the inspectorate added that, regarding these cases, it wants to explore how it can provide better explanations as to why there will be a wait.
6. Independent review of Ofsted’s handling of Ruth Perry’s death
The coroner said she was particularly concerned that a learning review had not been carried out by the watchdog after the death of Ruth Perry.
Ofsted announced today that it would appoint an independent education expert to lead a review into the inspectorate’s response to her death.
It added: “The independent expert will consider whether Ofsted’s internal policies for dealing with tragic incidents need to be revised.”
The watchdog said it would appoint a recognised expert from the education sector by March this year, and would publish their recommendations and respond to them in September as part of its response to the Big Listen exercise.
This independent review will not look at the inspection of Caversham Primary School or events before Ms Perry’s death.
7. Wellbeing support for school leaders
Ofsted said it will make sure it plays “a positive role” in ensuring school leaders are aware of the wellbeing support available to them, after the coroner said during the inquest that she was concerned the watchdog couldn’t clarify what additional aid headteachers would receive.
The report comes after education secretary Gillian Keegan said last June that the government was “significantly expanding wellbeing support”.
Ofsted’s report said it recognises that the DfE “has ownership of support available to headteachers but we do believe that our inspectorate can play a positive role”.
It added: “Through our ongoing inspector training, we will reinforce the expectation that they share this information with leaders at the beginning of an inspection.”
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