Posted on 18/12/2015 by

On Monday, David Cameron announced more details of his long talked about plans to step up interventions in children’s services. He has spoken for months about innovation, new models of delivery and, ultimately, takeovers of failing services.

A series of measures outlined by the Prime Minister this week seemed to formalise the process for local authority children’s services to be converted into children’s trusts. So what do we know about these proposals, and how will they affect social work?

What exactly will be the grounds for intervention?

A commissioner will be appointed wherever Ofsted finds evidence of “persistent or systemic” failure. This is defined by a spokesperson for the Prime Minister as:

• An authority which has received more than two ‘inadequate’ ratings in the previous five years
• An ‘inadequate’ Ofsted rating which identified wholesale inadequate services, and evidence of corporate failure by senior leaders and managers
• An ‘inadequate’ rating has been issued but there has been no sign of improvement after six months

What will the commissioner do?

The commissioner will oversee the running of children’s services and have the power to direct the authority to make urgent improvements. The commissioner will also have the power to oversee the takeover of a children’s services by a high-performing local authority, or the creation of a new trust within 12 months of being appointed. The new trust would be inspected by Ofsted a year after it was set up.

Does Ofsted have the capacity to do this, and what will inspections look like?

Ofsted is still agreeing the details of the plan with the government, so is unable to give any details on what the inspections of trusts 12 months after they are set up may look like, or whether it has the capacity to take on this increased inspection burden.

It was reported earlier this year that Ofsted’s inspections of children’s services were experiencing funding problems, so having to re-inspect a service 12 months after it becomes a trust could put added strain on inspections.

Earlier this year, Ofsted’s national director for social care, Eleanor Schooling, floated the idea of using the current single inspection framework (SIF) outcomes as a “baseline” for smaller inspections in the future, which could mean a different kind of inspection focusing on the key problem areas for these new trusts.

How many authorities could face intervention?

The Prime Minister’s plans place much weight on Ofsted’s judgments, and latest figures from its inspections of local authorities under the SIF show many are being told to make improvements.

Source: CommunityCare