Passionate exchanges have been made over an investigation into better support for teachers in the town prompted by the death of a headteacher in Reading.
A learning review was undertaken in Reading borough that was commissioned following the death of Ruth Perry, the headteacher of Caversham Primary School in January last year. An inquest ruled the headteacher took her own life as a result of an Ofsted report that rated the school inadequate.
A learning review report, containing lessons learned and recommended actions was recently discussed by councillors at a Reading Borough Council meeting.
Chris Tomkins, the former headteacher of Caversham Primary School, who had appointed Ruth as her deputy head for four years, passionately argued that teachers required more support.
In doing so, she criticised Brighter Futures for Children, which runs child and education services on behalf of Reading Borough Council.
Chris said: “Brighter Futures should most definitely have made a formal complaint to Ofsted or at least supported the school in doing so.
“The lead inspector’s poor conduct alone was sufficient grounds for this, as agreed by the coroner in the inquest. This would have made Ruth feel constructively supported.”
During an inquest into her death, Ruth’s husband Jonathan Perry said she felt the lead inspector ‘had an agenda’ and feared for her career, as inadequate ratings lead to schools being converted into academies and possible leadership changes.
Continuing, Chris said: “Ruth had to endure the Christmas holidays without being able to discuss the report, without being able to speak to anyone about it before seeing the final copy.
“Ruth received the inspection report on Friday, January 6, and killed herself on Sunday, January 8, just before the report was published.”
She then argued Brighter Futures has ‘missed opportunities’ to support Ruth. Chris said: “Ruth has been dead for over a year now, I do hope this review does lead to some much-needed real improvement in the support provided for staff wellbeing.”
A criticism Chris Tomkins had was that the findings of the review were too focused on pushing for national change, such as lobbying for the abolition of one-word Ofsted judgements.
The review findings and actions were authored by Brian Pope, an assistant director for education, and Steve Crocker, a former director of children’s services both at Hampshire County Council.
Mr Crocker argued the findings of the review conducted continually led back to issues in national policy. One example of that is if safeguarding by Ofsted is a school is judged ‘inadequate’ overall, despite the quality of teaching and parent satisfaction.
The review findings and actions were then discussed by Reading Borough Council’s adult social care, children’s services and education committee.
Councillor Doug Cresswell (Green, Katesgrove) asked how school staff safeguarding is vetted – as concerns over safeguarding at Caversham Primary led inspectors to rate it ‘inadequate’.
Mr Pope replied that safeguarding checks are the responsibility of the school which hires staff.
Cllr Cresswell also argued Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs) offer ‘variable quality of support’, and asked whether school staff would have another route to support.
Mr Crocker said: “Every local authority I know of will have an EAP, all such programmes in my experience are really limited, and Reading is no different.
“We’ve made a recommendation around awareness and suicide prevention.
“It would be good practice to develop that provision in Reading.”
Ruth McEwan (Labour, Church), lead councillor for education passed on the condolences to the Perry family from the committee.
Actions suggested from the review include devising a critical incident policy for ’emergencies’ to support all school staff, and for Brighter Futures to publish strong guidance for school hiring procedures to address safeguarding concerns.
The committee unanimously agreed to these actions at the meeting on Monday, July 22.
