In April 2017 Ofsted announced that a range of children’s social care settings will be subject to the same social care common inspection framework (SCCIF). 

In 2016 Ofsted published their consultation on the principles for children’s social care inspections, with a new common inspection framework and proposals for a new approach to the inspection of local authority children’s services. The online consultation received more than 200 responses, the vast majority of which supported the proposals. Ofsted also piloted the SCCIF and held face-to-face meetings with many interested people and groups.

We outline the evidence you need to focus on in our webinar below.

From 1 April, the following three principles now link all Ofsted inspections of children’s social care providers:

  • to focus on the things that matter most to children’s lives
  • to be consistent in our expectations of providers
  • to prioritise our work where improvement is needed most

At present there are several variations in the inspection guidance for social care providers across the range of settings, and differences in the criteria used by Ofsted to make judgements on each type of service.

The experiences and progress of children are central to the new SCCIF. The framework will support inspectors to focus on the difference the provider makes to the lives of children and other service users.

Ofsted say the SCCIF does not mean a one-size-fits-all approach to inspection. The framework is tailored to reflect and address each distinct type of children’s social care provider. These are:

  • children’s homes, including secure children’s homes
  • independent fostering agencies
  • voluntary adoption agencies
  • residential family centres
  • residential holiday schemes for disabled children
  • boarding schools and residential special schools
  • the residential provision of further education colleges

Mock Inspections

Any service booking a mock inspection will benefit from rigorous review under the new Social Care Common Inspection Framework.

Onrezume Members

Onrezume members will receive further updates to compliance tools and resources on the member site.