Ofsted tightens its rules for
inspecting child services

Inspections will assess services from the time it is first needed until a young person who is looked after has been successfully helped to start their lives as a young adult.

Coming into effect from November, the framework brings together into one inspection: child protection; services for looked after children and care leavers; and local authority fostering and adoption services.

Two other frameworks were also published yesterday by the children’s services watchdog, covering inspections for voluntary adoption agencies and independent fostering services. Both take immediate effect.

The approach for vulnerable children being taken by Ofsted mirrors that being used in schools which says that from now only a judgement of ‘good’ is good enough.

Ofsted said the protection of children and young people is a crucial judgement. Inspectors will make three key judgments in the single inspection. They will assess the experiences and progress of children who need help; the experiences and progress of children who are looked after and whether permanent homes and families are found for them and they will rate councils’ leadership, management and governance.

If a local authority is judged inadequate in any of these three critical areas, it will automatically be deemed inadequate overall.

A statement added: “Services that are less than good will no longer be judged adequate, but to require improvement until they meet the standard that children, young people and their families deserve and have a right to expect.

“The key test is the extent to which children’s experiences are prioritised and the effectiveness of the help, protection and care that they receive.”

Ofsted’s new national director for social care, Debbie Jones, has welcomed the creation of a new single inspection framework.

She said: “I am delighted to join Ofsted at this significant time. While I understand the pressures and recognise that the social care landscape is changing, I believe that this new framework has children and young people and the quality of professional practice at its heart. It is our ambition to establish ‘good’ as the new minimum and for this to become the agreed standard for all services for children and young people.

“It is right to introduce the harder test asking what difference we are all making and I am impressed with the extent to which the new framework sets this out.

“Ofsted has worked collaboratively with the sector during the development phase, building upon previous frameworks and taking account of the experiences and views of those working in children’s services.”