Ruth Perry - OFSTED ‘contributed to death of Headteacher’

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The Coroner today recorded that OFSTED contributed to Ruth Perry’s death.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-67612233

An OFSTED inspector - ALAN DERRY - and his lack of professionalism, his lack of fairness, contributed to another human being’s death.

That is not an opinion that is a fact as recorded by the Coroner.

The Coroner also found that “parts of the ALAN DERRY’S inspection were conducted in a manner which lacked fairness”.

Regulators like ALAN DERRY exist to ensure fairness and proper procedures are followed by others. Why did ALAN DERRY allow his inspection to be unfair?

Our children, teachers, support staff and headteachers need immediate protection from an inspection process so appalling that is has contributed to a person’s death.

The Head of OFSTED has announced a day of training next week to fix this issue.

A day of training.

A day of training to help Inspectors not contribute to a person taking their own life. If an organisation needs training so that its employees don’t contribute to the deaths of others - then that organisation is not fit for purpose and its leadership, culture and moral compass are either absent or so woeful and professionally incompetent that they are simply negligent in the duties as a public body.

I believe a crowdfunding page is being established this week to possibly fund and pursue a case of Corporate Manslaughter against OFSTED now that their role in Ruth Perry’s death has been established.

How awful that a system of school inspection has become such a deranged quango. All power and no responsibility is such a toxic mix - and one here that has contributed to the death of another person.

What if another Head or Teacher takes their life in the coming weeks or months because of OFSTED - how awful would that be? How culpable would that make those who do not make seismic changes now.

Unprofessionalism of this level will not be cured by a day’s training and some tweaks.

Only complete and immediate overhaul - led by the SoS for Education and the Government can ensure this tragic event is not repeated in the coming months.

@Crishell 3 classes is quite large compared to some of my local schools! Unless you get an Inspector who has worked with mixed age classes, especially whole KS1 and KS2 classes, they have no idea

Alot of people don't realise how much work is required in mixed age/mixed key stage classes. It's incredibly difficult to cater to the range of ages. I say ages, because it's not just about abilities, it's about difference in maturities as well.

We (small school, 90 children) were inspected last year by a secondary Head and and Executive Head of a large secondary MAT. They had no understanding at all of small schools and the workload involved (eg, I lead 4 subjects, am SLT but have no management time or subject leadership time - no money, because money comes with children). The EH looked like she had never seen a child under 11 before - never got down to their level, always had her laptop open and peering over the top of it as she asked them questions.

It was an utterly soul-destroying experience. Our previous inspection, under the previous framework, had been stressful but under a lovely inspector who did her best to work with the school rather than try to trip staff members up.

I have total empathy with this situation. My husband is a dentist and most dentists are deeply concerned about CQC inspections. Often these are led by non dentists.

The CQC can and have reported dentists to the GDC - their regulatory bodies. I know dentists who have then been suspended at interim order committees. These are essentially emergency hearings which don't decide facts but assess risk. If the CQC have reported you, you are highly likely to be deemed a risk. The dentist is then usually suspended until a fitness to practise hearing. That can be years - 2 to 3 is not unusual. In that time, they cannot work. Many lose their practices and/or their homes if they don't have family support. Some have committed suicide. Most are probably suffering from undiagnosed PTSD after the final hearing. Very often the findings of the hearing are that minor errors have been made but an individual has been stopped from earning a living for years. The GDC is prevaricating and delaying in releasing the figures of how many dentists have committed suicide or attempted suicide despite repeated requests.

The system of regulation in this country is out of control. It's not driving improvement and ensuring necessary changes are made quickly but humanely. It is punitive and often led by individuals who have no or out of date experience of the roles of those they judge. It takes no account of human factors and is a blunt tool. It is driving dentists/teachers etc out of their professions. We desperately need a root and branch review of regulation as a whole. The entire concept of protection of the public and how that is best achieved needs to be reassessed

Exactly. They have no idea. As a childminder inspected with 3x two year olds, she spoke to the children once in five hours ... and that was to tell them to wait when they asked me for a nap. She insisted on asking me questions about FGM at the dinner table, she wanted to know why I hadn't taught them any spellings and why I wasn't setting regular homework.

I have no objection to regulation and quality control, but there must be another way.

@daffodilandtulip That sounds like an awful - and completely ignorant, to be honest - experience.

There have been lots of interesting ideas re: the reform of Ofsted on this thread and others, but SURELY the most obvious one - suggested multiple times by muliple people - is different frameworks for different ages and stages. Why can't an inspectorate into the profession, who are the arbiters of education, comprehend that?

The system of regulation in this country is out of control. It's not driving improvement and ensuring necessary changes are made quickly but humanely. It is punitive and often led by individuals who have no or out of date experience of the roles of those they judge. It takes no account of human factors and is a blunt tool. It is driving dentists/teachers etc out of their professions. We desperately need a root and branch review of regulation as a whole. The entire concept of protection of the public and how that is best achieved needs to be reassessed

I agree. We need to keep dentists and teachers in work (and alive) and understand that they are human beings.

https://www.bmj.com/content/381/bmj.p1147

This is an interesting read. Amanda Spielman should not be allowed to stick her fingers in her ears and repeat bland, ‘that is not the picture of education I recognise’ any more.

She has done such a lot of damage to schools and the people inside them for a very long time in refusing to even discuss what’s going on.

This is an excellent article - duty of care and possibly the case of Wednesbury unreasonableness? Any current lawyers out there like to give us their thoughts (my law brain is too old and out of date to be of use here).

https://www.bmj.com/content/381/bmj.p1147

www.theguardian.com/education/2023/dec/10/ofsted-chief-should-quit-now-says-ruth-perrys-sister-as-briefing-memo-is-revealed

Incredible - so the training tomorrow is not 'how to make inspections less adversarial' but just 'what to do if you upset someone'.
No acknowledgement that the system itself is the problem.
I am so grateful to Ruth Perry's sister for continuing to push the issue.

I don't understand why Amanda Spielman didn't resign immediately after the coroner's verdict. How could she not?

She is ‘paying lip service’ to the outcome, which is the exact thing the coroner warned that Ofsted shouldn’t do.

She (and Ofsted itself) appear to be completely untouchable; it makes you feel so powerless as teachers.

It will be interesting to see what comes out of the meeting between Professor Waters and the new Ofsted head. She said on Women’s Hour that Gillian Keegan was completely refusing to budge on the one-word judgements and I think that scrapping those is the thing that would make the biggest difference.

Ofsted during Monday's post training Q&A...

I am in awe of Ruth Perry’s sister. I could tell immediately on seeing her she was very intelligent and very used to putting her point across. I’m not surprised she’s a professor. It’s awful that the case needs somebody with this background in the family and it’s awful she has to do this through her grief but I’m so glad the case has her.

https://amp.theguardian.com/education/2023/dec/10/ofsted-chief-should-quit-now-says-ruth-perrys-sister-as-briefing-memo-is-revealed

90 mins of training - quick QandA then get back out there chaps.

Spielman won’t resign as no doubt she is a few days away from being able to go with all her OFSTED pension and leaving £££.

If she resigns she’ll probably lose some money - suspect that’s why she is happy to look so useless for a few more days.

So am I. I think had Ruth Perry’s sister not been so articulate, intelligent and driven, this wouldn’t have got half the publicity it has. She has single-handedly exposed Ofsted for the corrupt closed shop that they are and I am so grateful that she felt able to do this whilst still grieving-it must have been so hard.

Absolutely. Ruth's sister is a shining example in how she's advocated for Ruth and exposed, articulately and intelligently, how utterly repugnant Ofsted is. Her clarity, dignity and strength are a sharp contrast to the response and the posturing of Ofsted.

The irony of adults teaching children kindness in schools whilst Ofsted behave in this way.

I can't imagine being in a job where I received such treatment. The whole system needs overhauling with reports produced to provide recommendations and highlights what's going well. Not some arbitrary single word which could never encompass what a school is.

I really feel for teachers. I don't know they do it.

Used to be a governor at a small mixed class primary, and it was indeed horrific. But the Government want to close small schools because they are inefficient, and damn the cost to local communities. The easiest way to do this is to make them all inadequate and then they’ll close due to lack of numbers making them unviable. This has already happened in our LA.

And it’s not just OFSTED who don’t understand small schools. Our LA is completely toxic - during lockdown I was on a call with someone from the LA who couldn’t understand why we didn’t do what another (3 form entry) school did - one teacher for key workers in school, one for home learning and one planning. We only had 5 teachers for the whole school, let alone 3 per year!

I haven't rtft but another head teacher took their own life near me a few years ago. Also, fearful of Ofsted. It's not right. Teaching has become a job that is so high pressure I am amazed anyone still does it. I hope labour pours money into schools if they get in, and they review Ofsted.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/apr/30/headteacher-hanged-ofsted-rating

I drive past this school daily and I often think of that poor woman.

When my dcs were at nursery their lovely nursery was downgraded and one of the things they were criticised for was that they did not plan activities on a weekly basis in the baby unit (under 2s). The woman in charge of the unit said to me, ‘we decide on the day so we know which children are there, what the weather’s like, what sort of state they’re in’ - and yet they were being criticised for being too flexible and responsive!

@TheCountessofFitzdotterel the thing is, the next nursery was probably criticised for having a rigid plan and not being more in the moment. And that's the issue with ofsted. None of these things are written down anywhere, it's all open to interpretation and personal opinion.

I'm so sad to hear about this poor woman and the devastation for her family. Going to work should not be so hard for so many millions in so many different roles in this country. I really hope the next few years will begin to get to grips with this occupational hazard of work place stress. Not half half hearted , cover their back strategies to address it. You should be able to do a hard day's work as best as you can and not feel utterly destroyed or blamed if you can't shrug off the culture of blame and not being super human.

DY10DY11, I'm so sorry to read this. This poor woman and her family.

Every head teacher I have worked with, including the most organised, dynamic and passionate, has gone to some very dark places when anticipating an inspection. One slept in school whenever 'word was' that Ofsted was in town. One suffering sudden onset of lifechanging medical condition the week following an inspection that resulted in a 'Good' judgement.

The stakes are too high. It is all very wrong.

Yes, so much this.