Inspector quits Ofsted over headteacher’s death
Joe Lepper
Wednesday, April 5, 2023
An Ofsted inspector has resigned following the death of headteacher Ruth Perry, who took her own life earlier this year after her school was downgraded by the inspectorate from “outstanding” to “inadequate”.
In resigning as a special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) specialist inspector, Dr Martin Hanbury also launched a scathing attack on Ofsted’s leadership.
“In recent months I have increasingly felt that Ofsted is no longer achieving its mission of ‘raising standards, improving lives’," he said in his resignation letter to chief inspector Amanda Spielman.
“This creeping disillusionment was set in stark relief by the tragic death of Ruth Perry. Ofsted’s ‘tone deaf’ response to Ruth’s death has troubled me to the extent that I can no longer be associated with the organisation."
He also accused Ofsted of “poor decision making and rushed processes” caused by “capacity issues” and a “flawed strategic decision” to “resume normal service in these most abnormal of times” post Covid and amid the cost-of-living crisis.
“Each day we repair and heal a generation of pupils damaged by the pandemic and slowed in their recovery by the economic crisis affecting us all. Each day those of us whose vocation is to teach, engage their school communities in learning; that most precious of human faculties. Each day we spread ourselves a littler thinner covering the gaps in other services and agencies,” states his letter.
“Ofsted has the opportunity to be a part of this profoundly important endeavour but elects to act only as scrutineer.”
Hanbury is chief executive of Chatsworth Multi Academy Trust in Salford and has been an Ofsted inspector since 2017, during which time he had been involved in 33 inspections, leading 13 of these.
His letter has been shared this week by Manchester based teacher and Teachers Talk Radio founder and host Tom Rogers.
Resignation letter (shared with permission) from Dr Martin Hanbury, CEO of a Trust - standing down as an OFSTED inspector this week. pic.twitter.com/KDPCL6J45v
— Tom Rogers (@RogersHistory) April 2, 2023
Also, this week Hanbury appeared on a Teachers Talk Radio show episode Ofsted reform – what could work?
He said that among education colleagues in Europe, “to them the Ofsted regime does seem strange” and “it is an alien notion to them that people would come into the school the way Ofsted would”, adding “their schools don’t look any the worse for it”.
He said: “The question we need to ask is what value Ofsted is adding to education.”
An Ofsted spokesperson said: “Our inspections are first and foremost for children and their parents – looking in depth at the quality of education, behaviour, and how well and safely schools are run. We always want inspections to be constructive and collaborative and in the vast majority of cases school leaders agree that they are.”
The inspectorate added that its remit is to carry out inspections, with school improvement resting with councils, trusts and government.
It also said that more than nine out of 10 state funded schools who responded to its most recent post-inspection survey were satisfied with the way the inspection was carried out.
Last month Spielman, who is leaving at the end of the year after leading the inspectorate for six years, rejected calls from headteachers and education unions to halt inspections following Perry’s death.
She said that while she understood the outpouring of grief from the sector, “I don’t believe that stopping or preventing inspections would be in children’s best interests".
