Ofsted moves to ease children's services inspection burden

The inspectorate, which has previously been criticised for the amount of time and resources local authorities expend during children’s services inspections, has confirmed it is increasing the number of inspectors in inspection teams from seven to eight.

A spokeswoman for Ofsted said the move will allow for a reduction in the number of days inspectors spend on site.

While the overall amount of “inspection time” spent in authorities will remain the same, more inspectors for each inspection means that they will be in authorities for a shorter period of time each week.

“We have listened to feedback from local authorities, and the reduction in days spent on site aims to make the inspection process easier to manage,” a spokeswoman said.

“It will also allow inspectors time away from evidence gathering to focus on analysis and evaluation of evidence – supporting more efficient and targeted inspection activity when they go back onsite.”

News of the changes comes after extensive criticism of the inspectorate in recent months.

In March, a joint report by the Association of Directors of Children's Services, the local authority chief executives group Solace and the Local Government Association said the current Ofsted inspection system for children's services should be scrapped and replaced with a lighter-touch and better-targeted approach.

Shortly after, it emerged that Ofsted's director of social care Debbie Jones had resigned her post, little more than 18 months after joining the organisation.

Then in April, a report by consultancy firm Impower claimed that Ofsted is unfairly tough on children's services departments and its inspections can have a detrimental impact on performance.

Last month the inspectorate rated three local authorities “inadequate” on children’s services in the space of just a week.