Further written evidence submitted by Ofsted [JRR 03]

Communities and Local Government Committee 2015: Child exploitation in Rotherham: Some issues for local government

Thank you for your further questions following the evidence session on 10 February with John Goldup.

As requested, enclosed are responses on:

• Social care inspections in 2007
• The development of frameworks for social care inspection used in 2009
• Framework documentation used for inspection in 2009, and
• Details of dismissals and voluntary exits for social care inspectors from 2007 to the present.

I hope that you and the other members find this information helpful. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any further questions.

1.              From 2007 did those inspecting educational establishments carry out any social care inspection work; where they did, what training did they receive; and were educational and social care inspections carried out simultaneously and what degree of co-ordination and sharing of findings took place.

Education inspectors did not undertake inspections of standalone social care functions.  For all of the individual regulatory and inspection visits of social care providers, such as children’s homes, fostering services, adoption services, inspection work was, and is, undertaken by social care professionals specifically employed for this work. 

In 2007 the majority of this work force would have been staff who had transferred from the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) to Ofsted in April 2007.

Since 2007 there have been some real benefits of having a more mixed workforce – education and social care inspectors work together on the inspection of residential special schools, boarding schools and secure training centres. This enables a more holistic evaluation of the experience and progress of young people’s experiences. 

Between 2007 and 2009 the Joint Area Review (JAR) inspections were undertaken by teams of inspectors representing the different disciplines being inspected.  The inspection of children’s social care within the JAR was led by a social care inspector.

For clarity, the overall judgement for the JAR was reached collectively through discussion between all of the inspectors (and inspectorates) involved. In this respect, education inspectors had some involvement determining the overall judgements. 

From 2009 onwards, the Safeguarding and Looked After Children (SLAC) and Unannounced Inspections of Contact and Referral Inspections (UCRI) were carried out exclusively by social care inspectors.  Our current inspections of local authority wide provision (the Single Inspection Framework) are undertaken by social care HMI with an education HMI being part of the team, but with a role and focus on the educational provision and outcomes for children and young people.

Ofsted has an established Safeguarding Group chaired by the National Director for Social Care, which acts as a governing board overseeing all safeguarding activity across all inspection remits. Through the work of this group there has been a strengthening of process and policy to ensure high quality information sharing prior to inspection and in the identification of key lines of enquiry within inspections. 

Inspections of Rotherham

2.              Who designed the framework for social care inspection in use in 2009.

Two inspection programmes were in place in 2009:

• The SLAC rolling programme was supported by two separate frameworks (contained in one published document), one relating to the safeguarding element and one to the looked after children element – the inspections were conducted simultaneously – the inspection type that Rotherham experienced in 2010.
• The “Unannounced inspection of contact referral and assessment” – the inspection type that Rotherham experienced in 2009.

This work was overseen by Melanie Hunt, who was the director responsible for Ofsted’s contribution to the Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA) programme led by the Audit Commission, with Mike Cladingbowl, the lead manager. They worked with a team of Ofsted social care specialists to develop the frameworks.

Ofsted did not design these frameworks in isolation. In each case we consulted the profession, local authorities, relevant government departments and experts in the field in order to produce frameworks that addressed what were understood to be the key issues at the time and in line with relevant statutory requirements and government policy.

3.              Can you send a copy of the framework documentation that would have been used in an inspection in 2009?

Attached separately.

4.              How many inspectors since 2007 have been removed from their posts because of failure to carry out adequate inspections?

Social Care Inspectors who have either left due to dismissal or have taken voluntary exits (VE) as a result of organisational change including changes to the role

Dismissal Figures are from 01/01/07 – 31/01/15.

VE scheme in place 2012-2015.

Key –

SHMI Senior Her Majesty’s Inspector (replaced MI)

MI Managing Inspector

HMI Her Majesty’s Inspector

B1 Regulatory inspectors

B2 Childcare inspectors

Ofsted currently employs 153 social care inspectors, comprising of SHMI, HMI and regulatory inspectors.

In 2013-14, Ofsted carried out over 4,500 social care inspections, including child protection arrangements in local authorities, children’s homes, adoption and fostering inspections, adoption support agencies, welfare inspections of independent boarding schools, residential family centres. (Ofsted annual report and accounts, 2013-14)

February 2015