Ofsted changes social care leader on the eve of new inspections

Back in November 2011, ahead of his appointment as Ofsted’s chief inspector, Michael Wilshaw found himself quizzed by the education select committee.

His name was already in the ring for the chief inspector post and one of the things the MPs on the committee wanted to know was how a man whose background was all “education, education, education” would be able to handle Ofsted’s wider children’s services remit.

“Although my expertise is in schools, I would hope that at senior levels in Ofsted there would be people who have a large amount of experience and expertise in social care and children’s services,” he replied. “John Goldup, who I have yet to meet, apparently is that person, and I will be leaning very heavily upon his expertise.”

Three months later, Wilshaw was back before the committee, this time as the new chief inspector and with Goldup at his side. The MPs raised the issue of how he was coping with the children’s social care aspect of the job.

“My colleague John Goldup is now deputy chief inspector, and that is one of the first things I did in coming to Ofsted – so I will be leaning very heavily on his advice and expertise in dealing with that area of our inspection work.”

Deputy departs
Now Goldup, the man who Wilshaw openly relied on to help steer him through the social care side of Ofsted’s work, is leaving, as revealed exclusively on cypnow.co.uk.

The exact circumstances of Goldup’s departure are unknown, but it is sudden. He will have left his post before the month is out and his already-announced replacement Debbie Jones, the director of children’s services in Lambeth, will not join the inspectorate as national social care lead until September.

Deputy social care director Sally Rowe will act as interim director in the meantime. During this period, Ofsted will in April start its new approach to inspections of looked-after children’s services and multi-agency child protection inspections (see box).

Moreover, a new regional system of inspectors is only just bedding in following its introduction in January, and there remains a sense among those in children’s services that Ofsted has more work to do on honing its social care inspections.

In fact, one of the organisations that believes Ofsted must do more is the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, of which Jones has been president for the past year.

“The tools Ofsted is using aren’t sufficient to deliver the judgments they think they can deliver,” says Andrew Webb, the corporate director of services to people at Stockport, who will take over the ADCS presidency next month.

“All the inspection tools it has developed around safeguarding and social work aren’t ever going to deliver that certainty that you can say this is a good or outstanding authority.”

Local authorities have certainly been finding the new tougher Ofsted safeguarding inspections, which came into force last June, rather daunting. In the first six months, 12 inspection reports were published with five councils rated inadequate, six adequate and just one (Redbridge) rated as good.

Lisa Harker, head of policy at the NSPCC, says the real challenge for Ofsted is getting its role as a regulator of social care right in the context of the Munro child protection reforms. Ofsted inspections, she says, need to encourage the principle of giving frontline professionals more discretion and freedom to make decisions based on their expertise.

“We need to foster that kind of approach – we need a regulator who understands that that is not exclusively top-down,” she says.

Ofsted, she adds, also needs to be more responsive to the changing nature of threats to children’s safety, particularly online. “We are learning a lot about child sexual exploitation at the moment and concerns about the patterns of offending,” she explains. “As a regulator, Ofsted has to move with the times and adapt its approach to respond to the sorts of threats facing children. It is critical that Ofsted is helping to ensure that the right accountability is in place. Whether it is female genital mutilation or another issue where there has been increased awareness and understanding in recent years, we must make sure we are providing the right inspection framework and context, so that services are held to account against the current circumstances facing children.”

Jones may well be the person Ofsted needs to see this through, although it is not known whether she will carry the title of deputy chief inspector. “Debbie is a formidable character, highly respected and her appointment is a very strong signal that the regulator has a focus that goes beyond education. In that sense, it is a very good move,” says Harker.

Appointment welcomed
Amanda Edwards, deputy chief executive of the Social Care Institute for Excellence, says Jones’s local authority experience will stand her in good stead. “She will bring some real insight into Ofsted from a number of perspectives,” she says. “She understands the challenges local authorities have faced and how they have managed them. That is an important perspective to have in inspection activity.”