Death by suicide of headteachers, deputy headteachers and teachers, following and linked to an Ofsted inspection

FOI REF: FOI/2023/4932

You asked

I would like to know ​the number of suicides of headteachers – and, if possible, of deputy headteachers and teachers – following and linked to an Ofsted inspection. If possible, I'd be grateful for figures since the inception Ofsted in 1992

We said

Thank you for your request.

We hold the following analysis regarding suicide by occupation: Suicide by occupation, England and Wales, 2011 to 2021 registrations.

Data on occupation is coded using the Standard Occupation Classification (SOC 2010). In all, there are 9 major groups of occupations (for example, skilled trades occupations); 25 sub-major groups (for example, skilled construction and building trades); 90 minor groups (for example, building finishing trades); and more than 350 individual occupations (for example, painters and decorators).

Full lists of occupations used in the analysis are reported in the accompanying data tables, and descriptions of these can be found in ONS Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) Hierarchy. The report is structured so that it describes larger categories of occupations before moving on to describe risk in specific occupations.

There are multiple occupation groups codes attributed to professions:

• In table 2 you will find a breakdown of suicides for sub-major occupation groups by sex, Teaching, and educational professionals.

• Table 3 contains suicides for minor occupation groups by sex, Teaching, and educational professionals.

• If you are looking for a specific professional occupation, please look at table 4. This table contains individual annual figures for Teaching and educational professionals from row 94 onwards.

The occupational codes for teaching professionals are:

Headteachers would fall under SOC Code 2317.

Due to the information we receive on the death certificate, we would not be able to advise if the suicide were due to, or linked to, an Ofsted inspection. This information is not collected at the point of death registration. We may be able to perform a search of the coroner's text, as a bespoke request. However, we would advise caution in requesting this data, a text search for the words "Inspection" for example would be applied to records where the underlying cause of death was suicide. Although this may identify records, the data is not considered completely reliable because the coroner will not always record detailed information regarding the deceased's history.

Should you wish to discuss the provision of bespoke analysis further, please contact Health.Data@ons.gov.uk. Please note, these services are subject to legal frameworks, disclosure control, resources and agreements of costs under the ONS Charging policy.

Registration delays for suicide data

The majority of suicides require an inquest, where a coroner investigates the death. The amount of time it takes to hold an inquest causes a lag between the date of death and the date of death registration, referred to as a registration delay. Registration delays for deaths caused by suicide tend to be 5 to 6 months on average. Suicide by occupation 2022 will be published in September 2023 to allow the inclusion of late registrations. More information on late registrations is available in Section 7: Quality characteristics of the suicides in the UK data of our Suicide rates in the UK QMI.