Ofsted warns children's services departments of ‘inadequate' factors
Neil Puffett
Friday, November 13, 2015
Ofsted has taken steps to warn children's services departments of common weaknesses they must address to avoid being rated "inadequate" when they are visited by inspectors.
A list of recurrent issues that the regulator encounters during single inspection framework (SIF) inspections highlights five key areas where councils have fallen down this year.
In addition to poor management oversight, the inspectorate lists high levels of turnover among social workers, managers and leaders, and poor performance management, as factors behind "inadequate" ratings.
It also identifies drift and delay in children’s casework, and failures to recognising potential cases of child sexual exploitation and missing children as other areas where local authorities have fallen down.
Ofsted said the aim of the information, which is based on a summary of common weaknesses in local authorities that were judged inadequate in the first five months of this year, is to help local authorities "identify whether they have these or similar weaknesses and improve practice".
Councils rated inadequate in the first five months of this year include West Berkshire, Lambeth, and Cumbria.
Publication of the document comes amid ongoing concerns that the current inspection framework is too tough on councils.
In August it emerged that three-quarters of English children’s services departments assessed under the SIF have been given the two lowest ratings “inadequate”, or “requires improvement”.
Last month CYP Now revealed that Ofsted’s children’s services inspections have been hit by funding problems.
Minutes of board-level discussions at the inspectorate revealed that it was struggling to complete inspections of all local authority children's services departments to schedule because it is "significantly under-resourced against agreed budgets".
