Ofsted experiences: performing inspection and suicidal ideations

Harding, R ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2328-0784 and Clapham, A ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5066-134X, 2026. Ofsted experiences: performing inspection and suicidal ideations. Journal of Education Policy. ISSN 0268-0939

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Abstract

In this paper, we examine people’s experiences of Ofsted, the state school inspectorate in England. From thematic analysis of the 233 written submissions published by the Education Committee Parliamentary Inquiry into Ofsted, we argue that the inspectorate can lead to teachers experiencing suicidal ideation (suicidal thoughts and feelings). Our analysis suggests 229 submissions (98%) contained negative comments about Ofsted, including accounts of teacher suicidal ideation. Whilst attempting to perform for Ofsted, teachers experience a ‘disturbed’ working environment leading to, for some, suicidal ideation. Consequently, rather than inspections and the inspectorate being simply performative, we contend they are performatively harmful, potentially putting children at risk. Drawing on Durkheim’s theory of anomic and fatalistic suicide, we argue teacher suicidal ideation is an urgent issue, for which Ofsted and the Department for Education have responsibility. We conclude Ofsted and the government’s responses to the concerns of the submissions to be far from adequate since the substantive criticisms about how the inspectorate operates and inspections are conducted remain unresolved.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Journal of Education Policy
Creators:	Harding, R. and Clapham, A.
Publisher:	Routledge
Date:	2 February 2026
ISSN:	0268-0939
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1080/02680939.2026.2622958 DOI 2582930 Other
Rights:	This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
Divisions:	Schools > Nottingham Institute of Education Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	Jonathan Gallacher
Date Added:	10 Mar 2026 08:54
Last Modified:	10 Mar 2026 08:54
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/55379

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