Ruth Perry ‘amazed’ more heads did not kill themselves, inquest hears

Ruth Perry told an NHS clinician she was “amazed” that more headteachers did not take their own lives as a result of Ofsted inspections during a conversation a few weeks before her death, an inquest has heard.

“This is the most inhumane system. It’s totally wrong that one person is made to feel like this. I’m amazed that there are not more heads killing themselves,” Perry said during treatment she received for her mental health struggles following Ofsted’s inspection of her school.

She added: “Ofsted needs to change.”

The inquest, at Reading coroner’s court, also heard from Perry’s GP and other medical professionals from whom she sought help as her mental health deteriorated following Ofsted’s inspection of Caversham primary school in Reading, where Perry was head teacher.

Ofsted downgraded the school from “outstanding” to “inadequate” over safeguarding procedures, and Perry’s family said she took her own life as a result.

Daniel Buckley, a senior mental health practitioner at Prospect Park psychiatric hospital in Reading, and Dr Thomas Back, Perry’s GP, told Berkshire’s senior coroner, Heidi Connor, that the Ofsted inspection played a role in her death.

Buckley said that Perry told him that Ofsted’s confidentiality requirements meant she could not reveal the result of the inspection, and that was one of her “chief concerns”.

Under Ofsted’s rules, school leaders are told the results of an inspection and shown draft copies of the Ofsted report, but are forbidden to reveal or discuss the report or judgment publicly. The inspection took place in mid-November, but the results had not been published by the time of her death in early January.

Dr Back told the inquest that Perry had no history of mental health problems in the previous 30 years, but he had repeated consultations with her after she was diagnosed with an “acute stress reaction” after the inspection.

By the end of the year, Dr Back said Perry’s condition had “definitely taken a downward turn” but that she insisted on returning to work after Christmas. Perry was “frustrated that she couldn’t move forward” without the Ofsted judgment being published.

Asked by the coroner if the delay in publication was linked to her death, Dr Back said: “I think so, because it meant that she didn’t have that release from what she was experiencing, all the fears she had built up, and what the release of the inspection details would have on her.”

A statement by Jonathan Perry, Ruth Perry’s husband, also charted her mental deterioration while she was waiting for the Ofsted report to be made public.

Jonathan Perry said his wife “was terrified that she would lose her job. She knew that an inadequate judgment meant the end of most headteachers’ careers. She kept repeating that she’d let everyone down, her staff, the school’s children and parents, and her family.”

Jonathan Perry said she was also scared that her own children would be bullied, and even that Caversham house prices would go down when the school lost its outstanding grade, making others in the community angry with her.

The weekend after the inspection, Ruth Perry reported “dark thoughts”, so the pair went to Prospect Park hospital to seek help, but she was unable to trust staff to keep the Ofsted result confidential.

“When we got home from the hospital, Ruth Googled, ‘What do headteachers do when they have an inadequate Ofsted judgment?’ She wanted to find some practical advice and suggestions; instead, she found, shockingly, reports of several deaths by suicide,” Jonathan Perry stated.

Perry also found it “unbearable” to show prospective parents around the school. “She had to show parents around what they thought was an outstanding school, that people fought to get their children into, when all the time she knew that, according to Ofsted, it was inadequate,” Jonathan Perry said.

Brian Grady, head of education for Reading borough council, said he considered challenging Ofsted’s results, but told the inquest he felt there was little chance of success. “I couldn’t challenge those rules because Ofsted set those rules,” Grady said.

The inquest continues on Monday, and the coroner’s report is expected on Thursday.

Amanda Spielman, Ofsted’s outgoing chief inspector, was confronted by a delegate at a conference in Bournemouth, who accused her of failing to “understand the impact that your inspections have on local authorities or schools, because they’re afraid to tell you”.

Spielman replied that Ofsted “absolutely recognise the anxiety that can build up”, but insisted that its inspections were meant to be “constructive and fair and professional”.