January marked the beginning of a new inspections cycle for children's services departments, one that brings several key changes to how Ofsted inspects children's social care provision.
From 2023 onwards, all inspections under the ILACS (inspection of local authority children's services) framework will include a separate judgment on the standard of support provided to care leavers. The move, announced by Ofsted in December, followed a short consultation last summer after the plans were initially revealed by CYP Now in early 2022.
Despite latest Ofsted ILACS data showing that the quality of children's services has undergone a period of sustained improvement in recent years, the inspectorate says the introduction of a separate care leaver judgment is needed to address some local authorities not meeting their legal duties in this area (see box).
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