Surveys by two education unions suggest that many school leaders and teachers who responded remain dissatisfied with Ofsted’s revised inspection system, introduced in November 2025. The findings have renewed questions about whether the changes made after the death of headteacher Ruth Perry have reduced the pressure associated with inspections.
The results are not representative estimates of all school staff, and they do not show that inspections alone caused people to consider leaving their jobs. They do, however, document substantial concern among respondents who had direct experience of the new framework.
What the surveys found
The National Association of Head Teachers said on 10 November 2026 that 52% of respondents to its post-inspection survey were considering leaving their role sooner than planned. The union also reported that 64% described inspections as “much more intense” than under the previous framework, while 86% said they struggled with their mental health and wellbeing while inspectors were on site.
NAHT’s first published tranche was based on 242 responses received from 16 June to 27 October 2026. Respondents were school leaders whose schools had undergone inspections under the new system. The figures describe those responses, rather than the views of all school leaders.
A separate survey reported by the National Education Union on 23 September 2026 found that 65% of respondents who had experienced both frameworks said the new system felt the same as or worse than its predecessor. The NEU said most respondents had undergone an inspection since the revised framework began.
The NEU also reported that 26% of its respondents said inspection made them want to leave education. That question differs from NAHT’s measure of whether school leaders were considering leaving their current role sooner than planned, so the percentages should not be treated as interchangeable.
A redesigned system
Ofsted’s renewed framework took effect for state-funded school inspections on 10 November 2025. It replaced the single overall effectiveness grade with separate assessments of different areas of a provider’s work, presented in report cards.
The framework uses five grades: “urgent improvement,” “needs attention,” “expected standard,” “strong standard” and “exceptional.” Safeguarding is assessed separately as “met” or “not met.” The design therefore provides a set of area-specific judgments rather than one overall grade.
Those changes describe how the framework is structured, not whether inspections have become fairer or less stressful in practice. Ofsted said the redesign was intended to give parents more detailed information and make inspection fairer for professionals. The union findings raise questions about how respondents experienced the system, but they do not by themselves establish the effect of the reform across schools.
The reform’s context
The framework changed after the case of Ruth Perry, headteacher of Caversham Primary School in Reading. The school was inspected on 15 and 16 November 2022 and downgraded from outstanding to inadequate. Perry died on 8 January 2023.
At the conclusion of the inquest on 7 December 2023, the coroner’s narrative conclusion was that Perry’s suicide was “contributed to by an Ofsted inspection.” The coroner’s report raised concerns about inspection practice and staff wellbeing. In January 2024, Ofsted accepted the coroner’s findings and apologized for the part its inspection played in Perry’s death.
The documented conclusion concerns Perry’s individual case. It does not establish that the inspection system caused other deaths, or that the survey results reflect a single cause of staff departures.
Questions left open
The survey results put the post-Perry changes under scrutiny, particularly the stated aim of making inspection fairer for professionals. They show that many respondents still reported pressure or found the revised framework no better than its predecessor. The evidence supplied here does not establish how widespread those experiences are among all staff, or how the system has affected school performance.
Simon Jenkins has argued that schools should answer to the communities they serve. That is a proposal for how accountability might work, not a conclusion demonstrated by the surveys. The available evidence documents the framework’s design and the views of surveyed staff, but does not assess the merits or likely effects of community-led accountability.