Ofsted’s role in the events leading up to the death of the Berkshire headteacher Ruth Perry will be examined during an inquest later this year, a coroner has ruled.
Heidi Connor, the senior coroner for Berkshire, named the schools inspectorate for England as “interested persons” as part of her inquiry into the death of the primary school leader, whose family say killed herself after a “devastating” Ofsted inspection.
The decision means Ofsted officials will appear at the inquest in person, to be questioned by the coroner and barristers for Perry’s family.
At a pre-inquest review at Berkshire coroner’s court, Connor said she was also considering whether to conduct an article 2 enhanced inquest into the wider circumstances surrounding Perry’s death in January. An article 2 inquest can be invoked when government agencies “failed to protect the deceased against a human threat or other risk,” according to the Crown Prosecution Service.
The inquest is investigating Perry’s death, which occurred shortly after an Ofsted inspection downgraded her school, Caversham primary, in Reading, from “outstanding” to “inadequate” over errors in safeguarding training and procedures.
Perry’s family have said she was “devastated” by the decision affecting the school that she had attended as a child. As a maintained school, an inadequate grade would have meant its management was taken over by an academy trust.
A subsequent Ofsted inspection carried out last month upgraded the school to “good”.
Connor said questions of whether an inadequate rating was appropriate would be a matter for the inquiry to be held by MPs on the education select committee. “What I am interested in is the nexus between the inspection and the impact on Ruth,” Connor said, adding that “the workings of Ofsted” were a matter for the parliamentary inquiry.
Perry’s sister Julia Waters said her family welcomed the forthcoming inquest.
“We trust that the scope of the inquest, as established today, will be both broad and deep enough to provide us, in due course, with satisfactory answers to the many questions we still have.
“We hope that, at the inquest itself later this year, the coroner will make recommendations to Ofsted to prevent further avoidable deaths like Ruth’s from occurring, so saving other families from experiencing the excruciating pain that we have experienced and that will never leave us,” Waters said.
“We miss Ruth every day and know that her many friends, colleagues and former pupils do, too.”
A spokesperson for Ofsted said: “Our sympathies remain with Ruth Perry’s family and colleagues. We are continuing to assist the coroner in her investigations.”
The coroner set preliminary dates for the inquest to begin on 28 November, with a decision provisionally scheduled for 7 December.
• In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
