Learning the Lessons: Ofsted
Thematic Inspections
Tracey Coffey
Operational Director Children and
Families
Ofsted Thematic Inspections
• In the Child’s Time: professional responses to Neglect
(March 2014)
• From a distance: Looked After Children living away
from their home area (April 2014)
Both reports involved examining case records in a
number of LAs, interviews with professionals, children
young people and families and with the LSCBS for each
area
In the Child’s Time – Key Findings
• The quality of professional practice in cases of neglect overall was
found to be too variable, although in some of the cases examined at
this inspection, children were making progress.
• Nearly half of assessments in the cases seen either did not take
sufficient account of the family history, or did not adequately convey
or consider the impact of neglect on the child. Some assessments
focused almost exclusively on the parents’ needs rather than
analysing the impact of adult behaviours on children. In a small
number of cases this delayed the action local agencies took to protect
children from suffering further harm.
In the Child’s Time – Key Findings
• While the quality of written plans was found to be too variable, there
was evidence of some very good support for children that was
meeting the short-term needs of the family. However, there was very
little evidence of longer-term support being provided to enable
sustained change in the care given to the children.
• Some authorities are using effective methods to map and measure
the impact of neglect on children over time and to evaluate the
effectiveness of interventions. This results in timely and improved
decision-making in some cases. However, not all local authorities
have such systems in place to support social workers in monitoring
the impact of neglect on children and the effectiveness of their
interventions.
In the Child’s Time – Key Findings
• Non-compliance and disguised compliance by parents were
common features in cases reviewed. Although some multiagency groups adopted clear strategies to manage such
behaviour, this was not evident in all cases. Where parents were
not engaging with plans, and outcomes for children were not
improving, professionals did not consistently challenge parents.
• Drift was identified at some stage in the child’s journey in a third
of all long-term cases examined, delaying appropriate action to
meet the needs of children and to protect them from further
harm. Drift was caused by a range of factors, including
inadequate assessments, poor planning, parents failing to
engage and in a small number of cases, lack of understanding
by professionals of the cumulative impact of neglect on
children’s health and development.
In the Child’s Time – Key Findings
• Front-line social workers and managers have access to research
findings in relation to neglect, although the extent to which this is
incorporated into practice varies. It is by exception that front-line
social workers use specific research to support their work. The impact
of training on professional practice with regard to neglect is neither
systematically evident nor routinely evaluated.
• Routine performance monitoring and reporting arrangements to
LSCBs infrequently profile neglect. Most boards do not receive or
collect neglect data except in respect of the number of child
protection plans where the category is recorded as neglect. Most
boards were not able to provide robust evidence of their
evaluation and challenge about the effectiveness of tackling neglect.
In the Child’s Time – Key Findings
• Those local authorities providing the strongest evidence of the most
comprehensive action to tackle neglect were more likely to have a
neglect strategy and/or a systematic improvement programme across
policy and practice, involving the development of specific approaches
to neglect.
• The challenge for local authorities and their partners is to ensure that
best practice in cases of neglect is shared in order to drive
improvement.
In the Child’s Time –
Recommendations - LSCB
• LSCBs should:
• have access to and regularly examine data and quality assurance
information to enable them to monitor the quality of practice in
relation to neglect across early help, child in need and child
protection interventions
• ensure that all agencies, including adult mental health services; drug
and alcohol services; police and social work services working with
families where there is domestic abuse; and services for adults with
learning difficulties, work effectively together to assess and agree
plans for children who experience neglect
In the Child’s Time –
Recommendations - LSCB
• ensure that practitioners and their managers have access to highquality specialist training on the recognition and management of
parental non- compliance and disguised compliance
• ensure that the training provided for front-line practitioners and
managers enables access to contemporary research and best practice
in working with neglect
• ensure that all staff are aware of their duty to escalate concerns
when they consider that a child is not appropriately protected and/or
is suffering from neglect, and that all agencies have appropriate
escalation policies and procedures, including a procedure for
challenging the decisions of children’s social care services where
cases are not accepted for assessment or child
In the Child’s Time –
Recommendations - LAs
• ensure that there is robust management oversight of neglect cases,
so that drift and delay are identified and there is intervention to
protect children where the risk of harm or actual harm, remains or
intensifies.
• prioritise the training and development of front-line practitioners,
focusing on the skills needed to engage in direct work with families
and the development of good assessments that describe what life at
home is like for children.
• support social workers and managers in the use of models and
methods of assessment that enable them to effectively describe and
analyse all risk factors in cases of neglect and then take decisive
action where this is required
In the Child’s Time –
Recommendations - LAs
• ensure that there is clarity about the threshold for care
proceedings to be initiated in cases of neglect, and that the
threshold is understood, consistently applied and monitored by
local authority social care staff, senior managers and their legal
advisers
• oversee the written evidence presented to courts so that it is
clear, concise and explicitly describes the cumulative impact of
neglect on the daily life of the child.
In the Child’s Time –
Halton’s response
• Neglect Strategy in final stages – launch events 16/18 July
• Strategy highlights issues of neglect and impact in Halton supported
by a clear delivery plan
• HSCB will have the lead in overseeing and monitoring the impact of
the Neglect Strategy
• Graded Care Profile to be rolled out on multi-agency basis from
September 2014
From a distance – Key Findings
• Children were living outside their home local authority for a variety of
reasons. Most commonly, it was due to a shortage of suitable carers
close to home.
• Children’s views were often taken into account. Inspectors saw some
good examples of cases where listening carefully to children’s wishes
and feelings had led to changes to their care plans.
• Contact with children’s immediate families was generally well
managed and promoted, although more could have been done to
enable some children to see friends and members of their extended
family.
From a distance – Key Findings
• Permanence planning and preparation work for young people to
become independent were not consistently strong, although
inspectors saw some examples of good practice.
• Too often, the quality of the care and support that was provided to
children was assessed and monitored by social workers without the
appropriate level of expert advice from health or education
specialists. This meant that decisions by managers about children
living out of authority were not always based on high- quality
assessments that fully described how children’s needs could be met.
From a distance – Key Findings
• Independent Reviewing Officers rarely contacted children living out of
area between reviews and generally did not provide enough
challenge to drift or delay in children’s plans.
• Corporate parents did not give enough priority to assuring themselves
that children living out of area were receiving high-quality care and
support.
• Careful matching of children to carers was much more likely to occur
when agreeing for children to live with foster families than it was
when the decision was for them to live at a children’s home.
From a distance – Key Findings
• There was often serious delay in securing support to promote
children’s education and emotional well-being.
• Too often, local authorities failed to notify other agencies properly
when a looked after child had moved into their area.
• Risks to some vulnerable children were not always adequately
assessed and managed by the professionals involved and, in a small
number of cases, poor professional practice contributed to further
disruption and uncertainty in their lives.
• Meeting the sufficiency duty remains a considerable challenge for
most local authorities
From a distance – Key Findings
• Some local authorities did not have sufficient understanding of the
needs of children placed in their area by other local authorities. LSCBs
did not always monitor their needs closely enough.
• The views of children living out of area did not influence overall
service planning in any meaningful way.
• The commissioning of independent placements for looked after
children was underdeveloped in most authorities visited, lacking a
clear focus on the outcomes required for children.
From a distance –
Recommendations LSCB
• Monitor the performance of the local authority and partners in
meeting the needs of all looked after children living in and out of the
local authority area, paying particular attention to:
• the extent to which specialist services are available
• the sufficiency of education and health resources
• the risks to children missing from care
• the effectiveness of the local authority sufficiency strategy in
reducing the number of children placed out of the area.
From a distance –
Recommendations LA
• discharge their responsibilities as corporate parents properly,
ensuring that they give high priority to the needs of looked after
children living out of area and closely monitor the quality and impact
of the care and support they receive
• notify local agencies promptly before placements are made whenever
a child moves into another local authority area, to ensure that
appropriate health and educational services are immediately
available
• provide carers with timely, comprehensive information about the
children and young people they are looking after
From a distance –
Recommendations LA
• agree placement plans and confirm day-to-day arrangements at the
start of placement, including clear arrangements to manage identified
risks to children and young people
• ensure that children’s educational progress and achievement is not
compromised by a move out of area; virtual schools for looked after
children should take the lead role in assessing the quality of out-ofauthority education provision and supporting all children looked after
by the local authority, wherever they are living
From a distance –
Recommendations LA
• establish full agreement for the funding of health provision in line
with the responsibilities outlined in legislation and guidance, prior to
children moving to their new home, so that there is continuity of
health care for them when they live out of area
• keep parents (where appropriate and safe to do so) fully informed
about their children’s progress and ensure that contact for children
with all friends and relatives who are important to them is not
jeopardised by living out of area
• ensure that workforce plans accommodate and prioritise time for
social workers, independent reviewing officers and other
professionals to develop meaningful, trusting and lasting
relationships with looked after children
From a distance –
Recommendations LA
• ensure that independent reviewing officers closely monitor, review
and pursue good progress in the plans for children living out of area
• ensure that the independent reviewing service manager reports
regularly to senior leaders and managers in their capacity as
corporate parents, on the overall progress of looked after children
living out of area, with specific reference to any resource issues that
may adversely affect the quality of care
• ensure that commissioning and contracting arrangements with
providers clearly focus on how the care and support provided to
children can meet their needs and help them to make the required
progress
From a distance –
Recommendations LA
• develop a clear strategy to recruit carers based on an accurate
analysis of current need, taking into account the known needs of
children whose future needs may require care away from their
families
• ensure the sufficiency strategy to accommodate the need for children
to be looked after close to home where this is safe for them
• give children living at a distance from their home communities the
same opportunities to influence the planning and delivery of services
that are available to all children looked after.
From a distance – Halton’s
Response
• Children in Care Partnership Board
• Review of CAMHS Specification at Level 2 and current LA funded
services
• Sufficiency Strategy under review – develop more local provision
• Foster Carer Recruitment Strategy
Questions?
• Do the thematic inspection reports findings reflect the experience in
Halton?
• What ideas/suggestions/solutions do you have to improve outcomes
for children affected by neglect and children in care?