Ofsted inspections too narrow to address child abuse, say councils

The Local Government Association (LGA) has warned that Ofsted’s current arrangements for inspecting children’s services paint an unfair picture of a local authority area’s efforts to protect vulnerable children, only assessing council performance and failing to consider the contribution of other agencies.

The organisation wants the inspectorate to scrap its current approach and develop a multi-agency inspection system that reflects the performance of all agencies, including councils, police and the NHS.

Councillor David Simmonds, chair of the LGA’s children and young people board, said councils are not solely responsible for child protection and wants Ofsted’s inspection process to be amended to reflect that fact.

“It is not fair to the children we are working to protect that Ofsted inspections only focus on council children’s services, failing to properly assess the essential work done by other organisations,” he said:

“We all recognise that it is only by working together to improve the way we protect children in the future that this evil crime can be eradicated and victims given the confidence to come forward.

“We need scrutiny processes to adopt the same approach, so every organisation involved in child protection is examined during an inspection.”