• Find a children and families services inspection report
• Understanding a children and families services inspection report
• Types of children and families services Ofsted inspects
• Inspecting children and families services
  • Inspecting children's social care
  • Inspecting Cafcass
  • Inspecting children's centres
  • Inspecting and assessing local authority children's services
• Types of children and families services Ofsted regulates
• Regulating children and families services
• Rights for me
• About our survey reports
• How to complain

Inspecting Cafcass

Before an inspection

We will ask the service area to put up posters to tell everyone that there will be an inspection and how to contact inspectors to tell them what they think of the service area.

Every year we send out a short questionnaire to some adults and children to help us in our inspections.

During an inspection

The inspection team:

• reads documents
• talks to people who work for Cafcass, managers and interested parties
• sees people who work for Cafcass doing their jobs.

After an inspection

The lead inspector makes sure the service area knows:

• how good the inspection has found the service area to be
• where it needs to improve
• if required, what happens if we decide the service area is inadequate (not good enough).

The lead inspector writes the report. We grade the service’s work.

Grade 1: outstanding

Grade 2: good

Grade 3: satisfactory

Grade 4: inadequate (not good enough)

We publish the report on our website within four working weeks of the end of the inspection.