New Ofsted inspections must show consistency

It is the latter of these scenarios that has raised its head over the past few weeks following the publication of the first five inspection judgments under Ofsted's new single framework for children's social care. The ratings for this first set of five inspections read: two "good", two "requires improvement" and one "inadequate", with one authority - Sheffield - having to be revisited following a "seriously flawed" initial inspection. It is not the most auspicious of starts.

But maybe that was inevitable. The new inspection framework has been on an uncertain footing from the very start. Throughout the consultation process over the framework, local government and children's services leaders had warned that the new system failed to give an accurate overall picture of the quality of children's services. Right up until the framework was finalised, the Association of Directors of Children's Services (ADCS) was warning that "graded judgments" would set more services up to fail. There is inevitably a tension between those being inspected and those doing the inspecting, but the best regulatory systems tend to have the full backing of those being judged. This is even more important when there is a change in the regulatory system.