16 October 2014

‘Children’s services - can inspection drive improvement?’

SOLACE Summit 2014Debbie Jones, National Director Social Care , Ofsted

• the mists of uncertainty

• the mountains of change

• the question of investment

• the seas of decisions

familiar?

• Ofsted is not planning a take over of improvement either through inspection or our improvement offer

• We neither prepare nor sign off improvement plans

• We are not realistic about the time it takes to achieve sustainable change

• We are not doing central government’s bidding

Dispelling the myths

• Ofsted has a framework which in response to longstanding requests from the sector sets out for the first time what good looks like

• This framework has been positively appraised by the sector and by Prof Munroe as a tool to properly capture the child’s experience of services and make sound judgements about them

• Ofsted is committed to staying alongside to support LAs who are not yet good enough

• We have great knowledge about the detail of what good looks like and where we can see it in operation

• We are developing rapidly our ability to deliver that knowledge effectively to support the sector.

What we are and what we have to drive improvement

• What do you as leaders have to offer to improve the current situation where only 27% of local authorities have good enough services for children and young people?

• What will it take to provide every child and family with a service of the standard that we would expect for ourselves?

• How can the lessons from inspection and the experiences of local authorities that negotiate the improvement route be captured as a resource available to all?

• What is the potential for future collaboration?

What are the questions for the future

THANK YOU FOR THE INVITATION TO CONTRIBUTE - I LOOK

FORWARD TO THE DEBATE