Ofsted are placing kids’s security in danger amid claims watchdog is ‘bending over backwards’ to verify inspections at colleges will not be ‘too aggravating’ for academics

Children’s safety is being put at risk by new Ofsted inspections designed to be not ‘too stressful’ for teachers, a whistleblower has claimed. 

A senior Ofsted employee said the education watchdog is now ‘bending over backwards’ to improve the experience for staff but pupils are being ‘forgotten’ in the process. 

Several inspectors have raised similar concerns with their line managers which are having a ‘chilling effect’ on the organisation, The Telegraph has reported. 

It comes after Ofsted introduced a series of changes to the ways schools are graded after an inquest found an inspection directly contributed to the suicide of Ruth Perry, 53. 

The headteacher took her own life in January last year after Ofsted downgraded her primary school in Caversham, Reading, from ‘outstanding’ to ‘inadequate’. 

At the start of this school year, the education watchdog introduced a series of changes aimed at protecting teachers’ mental health. 

Instead of being judged by one word, schools receive ratings for individual sub-categories -quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and management.

But some staff at Ofsted have hit back, saying the changes have gone too far and now put children’s safety at risk. 

Labour announced back in September it would scrap one-word Ofsted judgements following the tragic death of Ruth Perry (pictured)

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, pictured in July during a visit to a nursery 

Single-headline Ofsted grades for schools were scrapped with immediate effect in September (file image)

The source told The Telegraph: ‘The main purpose of inspections is to make sure children are kept safe and they are getting a decent quality of education.

‘But that is being forgotten. Now Ofsted is bending over backwards to make sure it is not too stressful for teachers. It has created a chilling effect.’ 

The whistleblower added that when it comes to safeguarding, schools are no longer undergoing as ‘rigorous’ testing as before. 

They claimed that there are ‘things going on in schools’ that are no longer being flagged and called out. 

Ofsted is currently designing a new framework for school inspections, which is expected to be rolled out in September 2025. 

Under the new system schools will receive a scorecard containing ten separate grades based on ‘key areas’, it was revealed in October. 

Pupil attendance will be judged as well as how well schools instill British values and prepare children for the outside world.

Other key areas will include the content of the school’s curriculum and the quality of teaching.

Ofsted previously awarded one of four headline grades to schools it inspects: ‘outstanding’, ‘good’, ‘requires improvement’ and ‘inadequate’.

Professor Julia Waters, the sister of Ruth Perry, said the family are ‘delighted and relieved’ by the changes to Ofsted inspections 

The scrapping of this system in September delighted teaching unions, while the family of headteacher Mrs Perry said they were ‘relived’.

Her sister Professor Julia Waters, said it was a ‘relief that no other headteacher will have to go through what Ruth went through’.

She said: ‘She [Ruth] had a really bruising inspection that left her very fragile and that word ‘inadequate’ — she just went over and over it, she kept repeating it, she wrote it down.

‘It was that feeling not just that she’d had the terrible shock and trauma of a completely unexpected bad Ofsted, but that she was still anticipating the public humiliation that came with that.’

Professor Waters added it ‘should not take a bereaved family member to push for change’ for something to be done, but confirmed Ruth’s family were delighted by the news.

However, the plans have been criticised by members of the Tory party.

Shadow education secretary Damian Hinds previously said that scrapping the ‘vital’ headline inspection outcome ‘is not in the best interest of pupils or parents’.

Former Tory schools minister Nick Gibb added: ‘If the Ofsted judgments are not crystal clear, the danger is they cease to be something parents look at when choosing a school. You run the risk of overall standards declining.’

MailOnline has contacted Ofsted for comment.