Impact of the SIF will be felt for many years
Derren Hayes
Tuesday, January 2, 2018
Two years ago, Ofsted national director for social care Eleanor Schooling said she expected children's services judgments under the single inspection framework (SIF) to begin improving.
At the time, directors of children's services (DCS) may have raised their eyebrows at her claim. In the first two years of the SIF, 14 councils were rated "inadequate" and none "outstanding", while 78 per cent of councils in 2015 were rated in the lowest two inspection categories (see Analysis).
There was a feeling among DCSs that the SIF had raised the bar too high and was failing to take account of steep rises in demand for social care services and real-terms cuts to council budgets. Now that all 152 councils have undergone the inspection process, Schooling has been proved right. The proportion of children's services departments rated at least "good" has risen from 22 per cent in 2015 to 33 per cent in 2016, and 56 per cent last year. However, the first two years of the SIF were instrumental in creating the overall perception among policy makers that children's services were sub-standard. This laid the foundations for the fundamental changes that have subsequently happened.
The David Cameron-led coalition and Conservative governments were quick to use poor SIF judgments to justify swift and wholesale change to the structures and management of "failing" children's services. Between January 2014 and December 2017, 30 authorities have been rated inadequate and become subject to government or Ofsted intervention of some form - quarterly monitoring visits, independent commissioners and new management parachuted in. For several councils, it has resulted in children's social care being outsourced to a not-for-profit trust or community interest company. Colin Green, former Coventry DCS, says this was a "purposeful attempt by government to increase the variety of providers in children's social care".
Green also highlights how negative SIF judgments - or the fear of one - have led to some councils finding extra funding to recruit more social workers and boost services. However, in light of last month's disappointing local government finance settlement, it will be a struggle to maintain these higher levels of investment in 2018.
This month sees the launch of the lighter touch successor to the SIF, the inspections of local authority children's services framework (ILACS). Schooling says the ILACS will be a "more flexible, risk-based and proportionate" system. Children's leaders will be hoping this translates to a more upbeat message about the standards of social care services.
Derren Hayes is editor of Children & Young People Now
derren.hayes@markallengroup.com
