Editorial: Joined-up inspection regime makes sense

However, there is another way of looking at the proposed change. At a local level, children's social care and education are being merged into single departments under the new directors of children's services. Ofsted had already been put in charge of co-ordinating the work of different inspection bodies, including CSCI, to produce new joint monitoring of children's services. The proposed merger simply takes this a step further, and it does make sense to have an inspection structure that mirrors the local joining up of care and education that is being brought about as a result of the Children Act 2004.

Last week's Budget Statement lists the benefits that the Government expects to see from the merger. They include fewer inspection visits, less bureaucracy, and a greater ability to track the experience of users across service and institutional boundaries.