Ofsted to visit inadequate councils every three months

Under proposals set out in February the inspectorate had said it wanted to change regulations so that reinspections focus solely on service areas causing concern rather than all elements of children's services.

However, following a consultation on the plans, Ofsted now says a decision on which elements of children’s services should be reinspected will be taken based on the findings of quarterly monitoring visits.

The visits will involve two Ofsted inspectors spending two days at the council in question. Monitoring activity will relate to the key weaknesses and recommendations in the inspection report, but the inspectors will also check that performance in other areas has not declined.

A narrative report will be published, in letter format, following the second monitoring visit, and each subsequent visit after that, with the information gathered informing the timing of the reinspection.

Ofsted said that inadequate authorities will receive a minimum of four monitoring visits before they are reinspected, which will usually be within 24 months of it submitting its action plan.

If a local authority had been found to be inadequate in all judgment areas, it will be subject to a full reinspection under the current single inspection framework.

But if the local authority is inadequate in only some areas of its service, Ofsted may decide not to conduct a full reinspection in certain areas of practice that were tested during monitoring visits.

“This will enable us to be proportionate in our methodology where we can while still providing assurance that the broader effectiveness of the local authority has been maintained, or even improved,” a report published today on the consultation outcome states.

So far under the single inspection framework, which was introduced in November 2013, a total of 23 local authorities have been rated inadequate. Of these, only two – Birmingham and Sunderland – have been rated inadequate across all five judgment areas.

The new arrangements for quarterly monitoring visits and the option to undertake a more proportionate reinspection will be in place until at least December 2017, when the single inspection framework is scheduled to be completed.

However, Ofsted has said that it anticipates that the new arrangements are likely to remain as elements of the model of inspection of local authority children's services from 2018.

Ofsted has previously said that the system being devised to replace the single inspection framework will be less demanding on councils, to reflect the pressures they face as a result of funding cuts.