'Challenging but fair': the new inspection regime for children's services

Only four children’s social work organisations in England are rated outstanding. Will that change under a new system?

The introduction of the new inspections of local authority children’s services (Ilacs) system has been met with some trepidation from the sector. After all, under the previous single inspection framework, almost one in five children’s services were rated inadequate, leading to criticism it raised the bar too high.

After Stockport council’s inspection in 2017, Andrew Webb, director of children’s services there, wrote to the then education secretary Justine Greening arguing that, despite the department’s good rating, Ofsted “neither evaluates actual social work practice, nor provides a rigorous assessment of system impact”.

Related: The UK child protection system is laudable. Why risk it with reform? | Ray Jones

Related: New ways of working and learning can grow resilient children’s social workers | Paul Burstow

Continue reading...

from Children | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2pOAzEp