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Press release: New Ofsted arrangements for the inspection of children's services, including safeguarding and looked after children's services

The Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted) has today published details of how its inspection of children’s services will be conducted under the new Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA). The frameworks published are the arrangements for the new Ofsted rating for council children’s services and the programme of inspection of safeguarding and looked after children, which includes unannounced inspections of child protection services in every local authority in England. Inspections will begin in June.

The three yearly joint inspections of safeguarding and looked after children, will be carried out by Ofsted inspectors, the Care Quality Commission and as needed Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary. All inspections will contribute to Ofsted’s annual ratings of children’s services in local authorities and the new Comprehensive Area Assessment more widely.

The annual unannounced inspections will examine the contact, referral and assessment arrangements for children and young people who may be in need of protection. These short-inspections will look at the quality of front-line social work, strengthening the scrutiny of this important aspect of child protection. Inspections will also look at how well front-line practice manages the risk of harm to children and young people and how it minimises the incidence of child abuse and neglect.

The new three yearly inspection programme places an important focus on outcomes, evaluating the impact of social work practice and services in improving outcomes for children and young people. Inspection will look at safeguarding more widely, examining how effectively agencies are working together to prevent harm and support the safeguarding of children and young people.

Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Christine Gilbert said:

“These new frameworks for assessing children’s services rightly have inspection of front line practice at their heart, paving the way for better and more effective services.”

Plans to strengthen the inspection of children’s social care were signalled in Ofsted’s consultation on the assessment of safeguarding and children’s services, published in September 2008. The new inspection frameworks are informed by the results of the consultation and follow considerable engagement with stakeholders, as well as consideration of Lord Laming’s report, ‘The protection of children in England’.

Notes For Editors

1. The Inspections of safeguarding and looked after children services document can be found on the Ofsted website at www.ofsted.gov.uk/publications/090027

2. The Unannounced inspections of contact, referral and assessment document can be found on the Ofsted website at www.ofsted.gov.uk/publications/090026

3. Ofsted has also published details of how it will provide an annual performance rating of council children’s services. The Comprehensive Area Assessment: annual rating of council children's services for 2009 document can be found on the Ofsted website at www.ofsted.gov.uk/publications/090024

4. Ofsted outlined its arrangements for contributing to CAA in Comprehensive Area Assessment: assessing children’s services and adult learning, which was published on 10 February 2009. http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/Ofsted-home/News/News-Archive/2009/February/New-local-authority-s-assessment-framework-launched

6. Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA) is a new approach that examines how effectively local public services are performing and improving the lives of the people they serve. Assessments will provide a snapshot of each area and will act as a catalyst for improvement by identifying where more effort is needed or where exceptional improvement may help others learn.

7. The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) regulates and inspects registered childcare and children's social care, including adoption and fostering agencies, residential schools, family centres and homes for children. It also inspects all state maintained schools, non-association independent schools, pupil referral units, further education, initial teacher education, and publicly funded adult skills and employment-based training, the Children and Family Courts Advisory Service (Cafcass), and the overall level of services for children in local authority areas.

8. Media can contact the Ofsted Press Office through 020 7421 6899 or via Ofsted's enquiry line 08456 404040 between 8.30am - 6.30pm Monday - Friday. Out of these hours, during evenings and weekends, the duty press officer can be reached on 07919 057359.

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