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Ofsted’s Deputy Chief Inspector, John Goldup is to deliver Ofsted’s first Annual Social Care Lecture at the London School of Economics today. He will explore the tensions between inspection in social care as a form of bureaucratic burden and inspection as a force for improvement in services for the most vulnerable children needing highly skilled protection and care.

Mr Goldup will argue that this tension can only be resolved if inspection focuses rigorously on those things that make the most difference to children. He will acknowledge that there are areas in which inspection has not always managed to do this, most notably in the inspection of adoption services, but that ultimately the principles of bureaucracy and the principles of effective inspection are fundamentally opposed to each other.

The lecture will be followed by a panel discussion including Anne Marie Carrie, Chief Executive of Barnardo’s, Matt Dunkley, President of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, and Eileen Munro, Professor of Social Policy who carried out the independent review of child protection commissioned by the Government which reported last year.

The lecture is taking place the day after Ofsted published its new framework for the inspection of local authority arrangements for child protection which comes into effect in May. The new inspections will be unannounced with inspectors spending the majority of their time observing front-line practice and talking to children, their families, social workers and managers. Inspectors will also be doubling the number of cases examined to ensure an in-depth insight is gained into how well children are protected in their area. The focus will be on what difference the help and protection offered makes to children’s lives.

Under the framework, inspectors will make judgements in three key areas: on how well children are protected and what difference the support makes to children’s lives, on the quality of front line practice, and on the quality of leadership and management.

Speaking in advance of the Social Care Lecture, John Goldup said:

'I don’t accept that ‘bureaucracy’ and ‘inspection’ are just different words for the same thing. But there are some real tensions that inspection has to resolve if it is to do what it exists to do – which is to raise standards and improve lives. I think that the new inspection framework we have just published is a major step forward in how we do just that. If inspection is not a force for improvement, it is not doing its job. I hope this lecture will help to stimulate debate on some really important issues.'

Along with the lecture Ofsted will launch a new report, High expectations, high support and high challenge. The report examines what are the key factors in effectively supporting front-line social workers in child protection, and what links can be demonstrated between better support for staff and better protection for children.

The report is based on survey inspections of 14 local authorities, discussions from 245 front-line social worker and managers, and over 500 responses from social workers to survey questionnaires. Inspectors looked in-depth at the experiences of 38 children, including meeting with some of those children and their parents. Throughout the report there are examples of effective approaches to supporting social workers which in turn made a difference to children’s lives.

The report found that effective support for front-line staff does contribute to better outcomes for children. Children became safer, healthier, less anxious, happier and more effectively supported by their wider families, which as a consequence enabled them to achieve more at school. The difference that effective support for social workers can make to children is best summed up by one child:

The effects of good support also resulted in front-line staff feeling less worried and more confident about the risks they were managing which helped them to be more focused, clear sighted and assertive. Combined with high support, these authorities also had a culture of high expectation and high challenge. Social workers welcomed the rigorous scrutiny of their performance, which supported rather than undermined their confidence in their professional judgement.

Talking about the report, John Goldup said: 'Social workers do an incredibly difficult job, often in very stressful circumstances. I hope this report will provide valuable insight into the best ways of supporting these front-line staff in their roles as they work to improve the lives of some of our most vulnerable children.'

Notes to Editors

1. A copy of John Goldup’s speech, ‘Bureaucratic burden or force for improvement: can inspection square the circle?’ will be available after the event and can be found on Ofsted website.

The survey report High expectations, high support and high challenge and the Framework for the inspection of local authority arrangements for the protection of children are available on the Ofsted website.

2. The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) regulates and inspects to achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children's social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, work-based learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses local authority children’s services, and inspects services for looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

3. Media can contact the Ofsted Press Office through 020 7421 5911 or via Ofsted's enquiry line 0300 1231231 between 8.30am - 6.00pm Monday - Friday. Out of these hours, during evenings and weekends, the duty press officer can be reached on 07919 057359.

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