• Latest news
  • RSS feeds
• Find recent news
• Ofsted News
• Media Centre

Inspecting residential family centres

17 Jul 2012

Ofsted is consulting on proposals to change the way we inspect residential family centres (RFCs) from April 2013. This will be in line with the government’s revised regulations and national minimum standards for RFCs set to be introduced at the same time.

The centres provide residential services for parents and their children and monitor and assess parents’ ability to respond to their children’s needs and to safeguard and promote their children’s welfare. They can also provide advice, guidance and counselling to the children’s parents as well as services for parents who may be under 18 and therefore children themselves.

Our inspections aim to focus on how well RFCs assess parenting skills and parents’ capacity to improve; the significance and priority that the staff at the centres give to the safety and welfare of children and parents; the quality of care, support and guidance they provide to all parents and children; and the impact and difference that the leadership and management of the service makes to the experiences of children and their parents.

One of our key proposals is that Ofsted should re-inspect residential family centres judged to be inadequate for overall effectiveness within 12 months. We also recommend that inspections remain unannounced as they allow a clearer view of practice as it really is and reduce concern and preparation time before inspection which can be better used for parents and children. To ensure that the experience for parents and their children is central to the conduct and findings of our inspections, we would like to introduce annual online questionnaires for anyone using or working with residential family centres.

We are seeking the widest possible range of views from those who have an interest in, or expertise relating to, family assessment and support, so that the inspection framework takes proper account of the needs and circumstances of all interested parties. We particularly want to hear from people who have been directly involved with residential family centres: children, parents and those who commission services.

The consultation document is available on the Ofsted website at: www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/inspection-of-residential-family-centres.

The consultation remains open until 9 October 2012.

We will publish a report on the responses to this consultation in February 2013, when we will also publish the new arrangements for the inspection of residential family centres, taking full account of these responses.

Associated resources

• Children's social care registration - Introduction to residential family centres

Share this

Google Plus One