3. Contents
Introduction 4
Background 4
Other information 5
Making an individual judgement 6
Making an individual judgement of outstanding 6
Making an individual judgement of good 6
Making an individual judgement of satisfactory 7
Making an individual judgement of inadequate 7
Making an overall judgement 8
Overall judgement of outstanding 8
Overall judgement of good 9
Overall judgement of satisfactory 10
Overall judgement of inadequate – notice of action to improve 11
Overall judgement of inadequate – enforcement action 11
4. Introduction
The purpose of the benchmarking guidance is to:
help inspectors make consistent judgements
provide information for children, young people, service providers and other
stakeholders about how Ofsted makes inspection judgements for children’s
services.
It aims to identify clear criteria for deciding on inspection judgements, which in turn
support and develop improved services that meet the needs of the children and
young people using them.
Background
We took over inspection of children’s social care services from the Commission for
Social Care Inspection (CSCI) on 1 April 2007. This included the inspection
frameworks and guidance used previously by CSCI.
We adopted the guidance about how inspectors award judgements, previously
known as Key Lines of Regulatory Assessment (KLORA). After using the guidance for
some time, we would like to make some amendments to take account of the views of
inspectors and providers. We recognise that it is sensible to leave more wide-ranging
amendments until after the introduction of any revisions to the national minimum
standards in 2009. We will continue to gather views on the effectiveness of the
benchmarks over the coming year.
The changes to the guidance previously issued by CSCI include:
replacing the outcome judgements of excellent, good, adequate and poor
used in the CSCI guidance with outstanding, good, satisfactory and
inadequate to match with the Ofsted terms used in all our inspection reports
introducing two stages for inadequate provision based on a provider’s
capacity to improve: those that can improve without further intervention;
and those that we judge cannot or will not improve without us taking
enforcement action
providing a child-friendly version of our benchmarking guidance once it is in
operation
using the benchmarking guidance to decide on a judgement or overall
judgement for all inspections, apart from those of adoption support agencies
providing greater clarity between the different grades awarded
from 1 November 2008 we will judge every social care service at full/ key
inspections on how it promotes equality and diversity.
4 Benchmarking guidance on making social care inspection judgements
5. What remains the same?
We will continue to:
use the same individual judgements of:
being healthy
staying safe
enjoying and achieving
making a positive contribution
achieving economic well-being1
organisation
make judgements for the following social care services:
adoption agencies and local authority adoption services
boarding schools
children’s homes and secure children’s homes
further education colleges
fostering agencies and local authority fostering services
local authority private fostering arrangements
residential family centres
residential special schools
secure training centres
the judgement for organisation can be no greater that the judgement for
staying safe; this was omitted in April 2008 in error and is being used to
decide overall judgements as previously by CSCI.
Other information
This guidance refers to children and young people unless it is service-
specific guidance related to adoption support agencies and residential family
centres. When used to inspect these services the guidance is applied to
adults as well as children and young people, unless there is specific
guidance in relation to children and young people.
We use this guidance to make decisions about our inspection judgements
for all children’s services.
We have developed separate guidance on how to determine an overall
judgement for adoption support agencies: this is because the standards for
this type of service are not organised under the Every Child Matters
outcomes. We are seeking comments from relevant stakeholders about how
we make an overall judgement regarding adoption support agencies.
1
The first five judgements are for the Every Child Matters outcomes:
www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/aims.
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5
6. Making an individual judgement
This relates to the judgements for being healthy, staying safe, enjoying and
achieving, positive contribution, achieving economic well-being and organisation. You
should refer to the guide to key standards at the end of each benchmarking
guidance for making judgements applicable to the service type.
Making an individual judgement of outstanding
This applies to an individual aspect that is exceptional.
Provision is outstanding where all the following apply.
Outcomes for individual children and young people are excellent and
demonstrate individualised care and support that reflect a child or young
person’s needs exceptionally well.
There is a comprehensive understanding of, and a varied and holistic
approach to, implementing equality and diversity that results in outstanding
care being provided to children and young people.
Staff demonstrate how they continually strive for further improvement
through evaluative and reflective practice.
There is consistent use of self-evaluation and any improvements identified
are managed in a timely and very effective way.
There are no breaches of regulations and all key national minimum
standards are met.
There are no more than two recommendations for that outcome.
Making an individual judgement of good
This applies to an individual aspect that is strong.
Provision is good where most of the following apply.
Outcomes for individual children and young people are good and
demonstrate individualised care and support that reflects a child or young
person’s needs well.
There is a well developed understanding and a balanced approach to
implementing equality and diversity that results in beneficial care being
provided to children and young people.
Practice is reflective and takes into account changes to legislation, good
practice guidance and up-to-date research.
Areas of need are identified and improvements are effective.
6 Benchmarking guidance on making social care inspection judgements
7. Any breaches of regulations and/or minor shortfalls in meeting national
minimum standards do not directly have an impact or a potential impact on
the welfare of children and young people. For example, where complaints
procedures are implemented effectively but the provider has not updated
the name of the regulatory body in the written procedure. We may raise an
action but the omission has no serious impact on outcomes for children.
All the key national minimum standards are met that directly or potentially
impact upon children and young people.
Making an individual judgement of satisfactory
This applies to an individual aspect that is sound.
Provision is satisfactory where most of the following apply.
Outcomes for individual children and young people are acceptable and
demonstrate care that generally meets their individual needs.
There is an adequate approach to implementing equality and diversity that
results in only a satisfactory level of care being provided to children and
young people. There is scope for improvement.
Some changes to practice are made as a result of changes to legislation and
good practice guidance.
The approach to quality assurance has some shortfalls, but is acceptable.
Issues are not always identified: where they are identified action to improve
is not always completed, but these do not impact upon the care provided.
Any breaches to legislation have a minimal impact or potential impact on
outcomes for children and young people. For example, where staff
qualifications and experience are not in line with national minimum
standards, but there is evidence that the staff’s skills and capabilities meet
the needs of the children and young people.
Most of the key national minimum standards are met.
Making an individual judgement of inadequate
This applies to an individual aspect that is poor.
Provision is inadequate where any one or more of the following apply.
Practice provides poor outcomes for individual children and young people.
The approach to implementing equality and diversity is ineffective and, as a
result, a deficient level of care is provided to children and young people.
Changes to legislation are not taken into consideration and there is no
demonstration that good practice guidance is put into practice.
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8. Quality assurance is poor and results in a number of areas for improvement.
There is no system to identify deficiencies and/or there is a failure to
maintain the necessary improvements to the care provided.
There are significant breaches of regulations or a highly significant deficit in
safeguarding children’s welfare is identified.2
One or more of the key national minimum standards are not met and this
has a significant impact on outcomes for children and young people.
Making an overall judgement
This relates to the overall judgement for an adoption service or agency, a children’s
home – including a secure children’s home – a fostering service or agency, a
residential special school, a boarding school and a residential family centre. There is
separate guidance for adoption support agencies and private fostering arrangements.
Overall judgement of outstanding
This applies to provision that is exceptional.
An outstanding service is one where all the following apply.
All the individual judgements must be good or outstanding.
Being healthy, staying safe and organisation are judged as outstanding and
at least one other outcome is judged as outstanding.
There are no breaches of regulation. No actions are raised and there are
either no recommendations or no more than three recommendations
The practice is so good that it is worth disseminating beyond the setting and
stands out from its peers.
The other areas to consider when making a judgement of outstanding are as follows.
Outcomes for individual children and young people are excellent and
demonstrate individualised care and support that reflects a child or young
person’s needs exceptionally well.
Children and young people are integral to decision making and there is a
wealth of evidence to show how children and young people’s views make a
difference to the service.
Diversity and equality are promoted very effectively in all aspects of the
service.
2
A significant number is defined as ’if four actions or more are made about the same national
minimum standard or about several key national minimum standards this constitutes a significant
number.’
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9. Very effective quality assurance systems demonstrate how reflective
practice and relevant research are taken into account.
Areas for further development are identified and dealt with in a timely
fashion.
There is a history of compliance and a focus on exceeding national minimum
standards and regulations.
Prompt or immediate action is taken to meet any recommendations.
There is a history of complaints being dealt with very effectively.
Overall judgement of good
This applies to provision that is strong.
A good service is one where all the following apply.
Being healthy, staying safe and ‘organisation are all judged as either good
or outstanding. At least one other outcome must be judged as good or
outstanding, so that four of the six outcomes must be judged as at least
good.
No individual judgement is inadequate.
For regulated services there are either no actions or recommendations set,
or no more than three actions relating to minor points and no more than
five recommendations. 3 For services that are inspected only there can be no
more than eight recommendations. 4
The other areas to consider when making a judgement of good are as follows.
Outcomes for individual children and young people are good and
demonstrate individualised care and support that reflects a child or young
person’s needs well.
Children and young people play a strong part in decision making. They are
consulted regularly and their views are evident in the way that the service
makes decisions about developments.
Diversity and equality are promoted well in all aspects of the service.
There is a robust quality assurance system.
3
Regulated services are children’s homes, secure children’s homes, residential family centres,
voluntary adoption agencies, private and voluntary fostering agencies, and adoption support agencies.
4
Services that are only inspected are boarding schools local authority adoption services, local
authority fostering services, private fostering arrangements, residential special schools and further
education colleges. This section has been reworded as it inaccurately grouped these services.
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10. Necessary improvements are identified and action is taken to make
improvements within well considered timescales.
There is a history of complaints being dealt with effectively.
There is a history of compliance and prompt attention to meet actions and
recommendations. Any reasons why actions cannot be met are discussed
prior to the date by which the action must be completed.
Overall judgement of satisfactory
This applies to provision that is sound.
A satisfactory service is one where all the following apply.
Being healthy, staying safe and organisation are all judged as satisfactory or
better. At least one other outcome must be judged as satisfactory or better,
so that four out of six outcomes must be judged as least satisfactory.
The other areas to consider when making a judgement of satisfactory are as follows.
Outcomes for individual children and young people are acceptable and
demonstrate care that generally meets their individual needs.
Children and young people’s needs and views are generally taken into
account in the development of the service, and some effort is made to
consult the children and young people. There is some evidence that children
and young people’s views are taken into account to develop the service.
Diversity and equality are suitably promoted in most aspects of the service.
There is an adequate quality assurance system.
There is a history of complaints being dealt with to a satisfactory standard.
There is a history of the service taking action to comply with regulations and
meet national minimum standards although there may be rare occasions
when recommendations or actions have not been met. In such
circumstances there are agreed acceptable reasons that the service can
promptly overcome and meet them. The service addresses the issue when
required to do so for a second time.
10 Benchmarking guidance on making social care inspection judgements
11. Overall judgement of inadequate – notice of action to
improve
This applies to provision that is weak.
An inadequate service that requires a notice of action to improve is one where the
following apply.
One or more of the individual judgements for being healthy, staying safe or
organisation are judged as inadequate
Practice gives cause for concern: it needs attention, but the setting has the
capacity to improve without external help and support.
There are some strengths that may, on occasion, include outcomes judged
as good or outstanding.
There is an area of failure that has a significant impact on the welfare of
children and young people, or areas that result in a significant failure to
protect the welfare of children and young people. This is likely to result in
raising high numbers of actions.
Issues identified at a previous inspection may not have been rectified, but
there is evidence of capacity and/or willingness to improve.
Outcomes for children and young people are inadequate, and there is a
generally low service performance that does not safeguard their welfare.
There is a poor understanding of and approach to equality and diversity.
There is a history of complaints which demonstrates that these are not dealt
with in a satisfactory way.
Overall judgement of inadequate – enforcement action
This applies to provision that is weak.
An inadequate service where enforcement action occurs is one where any one of the
following apply.
There is an immediate risk to children and young people, or there is a
breach of regulations which constitutes an offence.
There is a history of failure to comply with national minimum standards and
regulations; or a failure to take satisfactory action to meet
requirements/actions and recommendations. Breaches of regulations
resulting in a previous judgement of inadequate have not been met and
there are no other circumstances to take into account. Please refer to the
‘There is a history of compliance and prompt attention…’ bullet point on
page 10.
There is a very poor understanding and approach to equality and diversity.
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12. The service provider is unable or unwilling to bring about improvement
without enforcement action.
There is a history of complaints which demonstrates that these are not dealt
with in a satisfactory way.
Overall the quality of the service is very poor.
12 Benchmarking guidance on making social care inspection judgements
