15.04.13
Single framework for child protection and looked-after children
Plans to separate inspections for child protection and looked-after children are to be scrapped, Ofsted has announced. These services will now be inspected under a single, combined framework.
Multi-agency inspections – planned to launch in June – will also be deferred.
Chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw said that separation of inspection was “not right” and that a single inspection framework would be introduced this September.
Sir Michael said he believed Ofsted could only inspect effectively “through a single inspection framework that examines the effectiveness of help, protection and care from the time it is first needed until a young person who is looked after has been successfully helped to begin their life as a young adult”.
He added: “Secondly, while the recent pilot multi-agency inspections of child protection were successful in part, they raised a number of issues and concerns that I have been unable to ignore.
“We need to consider further how we will test, challenge and judge the specific accountabilities of each agency to protect, care for and help children, young people and their families.
“I fully recognise the importance and impact of shared professional responsibility for the protection and care of children and young people. I am entirely committed to continuing to work together to establish how best to inspect services that make the most difference to the most vulnerable children, young people and families. Indeed, I will be meeting with my fellow chief inspectors in the near future to agree the next steps.”
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