Ofsted explained… how we can help

Ofsted is the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills.

Its roots are said to date back to 1837 when two inspectors were appointed by statute to monitor the effectiveness of grants to organisations responsible for promoting education for poor children.

Over the following century or so it has existed in various guises (His Majesty’s Inspectorate, the Office for Standards in Education) before its formal creation in 1992. Its remit was very much focused upon standards in education, however, in 2007 it assumed responsibility from the Commission for Social Care Inspection for the registration and inspection of social care services for children.

It remains a non-ministerial department of His Majesty’s Government which aims to “raise standards through rigorous inspection and regulation and to report without fear or favour on what it finds”.

What do ofsted do?

Ofsted is responsible for:

• Inspecting – many forms of schools & education providers, local authorities, adoption & fostering agencies and CAFCASS.
• Regulating – a range of early years and children’s social care services.
• Reporting – publishing reports of findings to improve the overall quality and effectiveness of services.

Ofsted’s inspection of local authorities & ratings

In January 2018 Ofsted adopted a new framework for inspecting local authorities… ‘ILACS’ (Inspection of Local Authority Children’s Services) which focuses on local authority services and arrangements for:

• the help and protection of children,
• the experiences and progress of children in care,
• the arrangements for permanence for children who are looked after,
• the experiences and progress of care leavers, and
• the effectiveness of leadership and management and the impact this has on the lives of children and the quality of practice.

There are many aspects to the inspection process (the completion of annual self-evaluations by local authorities, annual engagement meetings, focused visits, joint targeted area inspections) but Ofsted is famed for its standard (2 week) and short (1 week) inspections which will usually happen once every 3 years, plus or minus 6 months. However, the timing and nature / extent of the inspection will depend upon how a particular local authority has previously been / is rated.

Inspections begin with a phone call from the Lead Inspector to the Director of Children’s Services to advise that inspectors will be on site in 5 working days. Following this call, the local authority will share information on children, audits, performance, and management.

When on site inspectors will meet with practitioners, managers, service providers and, sometimes, with children and care leavers. They may also speak with parents, carers, foster carers, adopters CAFCASS and the local judiciary.

Inspectors will evaluate the experiences of the children and young people (both those in need of help and protection and those in care and care leavers), the impact of leaders and managers on social work practice with children and families and whether the local authority’s own evaluation of the quality and impact of its performance and practice is accurate.

Inspectors will then make their graded judgements on a 4-point scale:

1. Outstanding
2. Good
3. Requires improvement to be good
4. Inadequate

That grade and the supporting reasons are set out to authorities in the inspection report which follows inspection.

That rating dictates the timing and level of further inspection with ‘outstanding’ or ‘good’ authorities being subject to only focused visits or JTAI followed by short inspection and, at the other end, ‘inadequate’ authorities being subject to quarterly monitoring visits and reinspection.

Inadequate rating

If a local authority is judged inadequate, Ofsted will carry out monitoring activity that includes an action planning visit, monitoring visits and a re-inspection.

A local authority rated as inadequate could face central government intervention which could range from being served with an Improvement Notice to a statutory Direction from the Department for Education which can include directing the council to enter a contract with a third party to perform functions on the council’s behalf. Any intervention, however, must be reasonable depending on the individual circumstances of the authority.

An inadequate rating carries immense significance (particularly given the inevitable accompanying community and media interest) as those in positions of senior management are at risk of losing their jobs and morale within the workforce is likely to be adversely affected. It is unsurprising that turnover of staff at inadequate rated authorities is higher than at those with better ratings thereby contributing to a vicious circle.

Common to many inadequate inspection reports are the following:

• High staff turnover (particularly experienced practitioners) which has a negative impact on staff morale.
• High caseloads are a significant factor as a result of the number of vacancies which in turn has a direct impact on delivering good practice and quality assessments.
• The need to use significant numbers of agency social workers which are expensive and often bring instability to the workforce and making it more difficult to deliver improved services as a result of the churn of frontline staff and managers.

However, inadequate inspection ratings offer a chance for a reset – for authorities to develop a robust improvement plan together with a reporting framework that outlines and evidences improvement against the areas for improvement identified by Ofsted. Authorities are required to publish a written statement of intended actions in response to the report within 70 working days of publication of the inspection report. This will usually take the form of an Improvement Plan and Performance Report. Ofsted will review the action plan and advise whether this reflects the findings in its inspection report.

How can we help?

We have partnered with several local authorities to provide practical support (whether following an inadequate rating or as part of a strategy to maintain / further improve existing ratings) by addressing the risk factors common to inadequate authorities set out above:

1. Strength in depth – due to the size and national spread of our ISW panel (which now numbers approximately 130), there is both capacity and considerable experience in conducting assessments across all stages of intervention (from initial assessment through to discharge or adoption assessments) with all interested parties (parents, children, kinship carers, prospective adopters) and expertise in assessing both routinely present risks and those less commonly featuring.
2. Retention of permanent staff is promoted by
   1. Social Workers feeling practically supported in managing their caseloads through delegation of assessment responsibilities (whilst retaining overall case responsibility)
   2. Non-solicitation – we do not seek to recruit your permanent staff
   3. Our willingness to support junior staff by facilitating their involvement in assessment processes by way of shadowing our ISWs; and
   4. We pose no risk to team harmony that might arise when permanent and agency staff are undertaking the same work albeit for very different levels of remuneration.
3. Experience – our panel of ISWs all have a minimum 5 years PQE and come from Social Work backgrounds as either local authority Social Workers or CAFCASS Guardians – they have all been accepted onto our panel following participation in our rigorous recruitment process.
4. Quality & service – we are committed to achieving best outcomes for children and deliver this through our ISWs’ passion, professionalism and skill and our comprehensive quality assurance, training and case management processes.

If we can help, please do get in touch here.