Lisa Pascoe, Ofsted's Deputy Director, Social Care Policy appeared at 'Adapting to the child protection joint targeted area inspections framework' training course held by Understanding ModernGov on 11 May 2016.

1. Inspection: practice matters
Lisa Pascoe
Deputy director,
Social care policy

2. Today
 Inspections now: the importance of practice, people
and leaders
 Getting it right for children: focusing on the right things
 Joint targeted area inspections: ‘deep-dive’
investigation areas – what next?
 The future of inspections: universal, joint, targeted and
thematic

3. 3,271 children and young people told us what they
thought was good about their children’s home or
foster carers and what could be better.
The five most common themes that emerged were:
feeling safe and looked after
having staff who put them first
feeling like part of a foster family
having fun things to do and good food to eat
independence, responsibility and having a say.
What children and young people feel is
important
3

4. Children’s social care questionnaires 2015: what children told us
4
Most children and young people told us they feel
safe inside their home9
Fostering
(1,727 responses)
92% 99% 0%
All the time All/most
the time
Never
The figure
was lower for
those in
children’s
homes…
Children’s home
(1,471 responses)
All the time All/most
the time
Never
66% 90% 1%

5. Children’s social care questionnaires 2015: what children told us
What children and young people enjoy
5
My foster carers take
me on holidays and
other places…we have
lots of fun. (7–11-year-
old)
I get to do activities I like
and I get to spend time
with my friends. We
have nice food and I get
to help with the cooking.
(12–15-year-old)
Going out, holidays,
doing lots of things
never been able to
do before. (7–11-
year-old)
I get to bake and go and
invite friends when the
day is free… They have
a dog and a cat which I
can play with. Having my
own room and feel safe.
(12–15-year-old)
I now have a healthy
diet and I have lots of
different types of food.
(7–11-year-old)

6. Children’s social care questionnaires 2015: what children told us
I am older than the
other girls and I can
stay out later if I
have something
special to do. (16–
17-year-old)
What gives children and young people a sense of
responsibility and independence
6
The staff team are very
supportive and help you out
with anything you need a
hand with e.g. advice,
planning things, advocating.
(16–17-year-old)My opinions count, staff
involve me in making
decisions. I feel valued
and respected. (16–17-
year-old)
I learn a lot of things I haven't
learnt before like to make my
bed, clean my room, learn to be
a man, and learn to have
respect for adults and peers.
(12–15-year-old)

7. Practice
 Social workers/practitioners that build and maintain
trusting relationships.
 Children’s wishes and feelings matter in their individual
circumstances and strategically.
 Risk is understood and addressed eg return home
interviews.
 Stability, planning and timely decisions.
 Support and challenge in the system.

8. People
 Targeted recruitment, careful assessment and effective
support for foster carers.
 Residential staff that are trained, valued and supported.
 A stable workforce: learning and development, career
progression, support.
 Workers, managers and leaders that know what ‘good’
looks like: a common aim and a shared purpose.

9. Leadership
 Knowing what good looks like: clear priorities and
a line of sight to practice: workers, managers and
leaders that know what ‘good’ looks like - a common
aim and a shared purpose.
 Creating a good place to work: career
progression; talent management; distributed leadership;
an environment where practice can flourish,
manageable workloads, support, accountability.
‘Children at the centre of thinking’

10. Inspection: now

11. Joint targeted area inspections
(JTAI)
 With HMI Constabulary, CQC, HMI Probation.
 Current focus on the protection of children and young
people.
 Not a universal programme. The inspectorates are
resourced to do up to 10 per year.
 Each JTAI has a ‘deep dive’ into a particular cohort of
children and/or issue.
 First five (plus pilot) ‘deep dive’ into children at risk of
sexual exploitation and/or missing.

12. How can this help the sector?
 Individual report for each area resulting in a narrative
judgement plus a summary report of our findings in
respect of the ‘deep dive.’
 A means of sharing good practice and aspects of
practice areas may want to consider.
 Next ‘deep dive’ will start in September 2016.

13. Inspection: what’s next?

14. Future of inspection
 Continued focus on practice.
 Risk-based and proportionate.
 Rigorous focus on progress and experiences across all
of our inspection frameworks.
 Bringing commonality into our expectations on
inspection wherever we can eg children living away
from home.
 The role of self-evaluation.
 Leadership.
 Responsive to the changing landscape.

15. Future of inspection: local
authorities
 Menu of options to include: universal; joint; targeted
and thematic inspection.
 Robust baseline of the single inspection framework
programme.
 Short, sharp and focused: usually inspection limited to
a single week’s fieldwork.
 Time to plan and explore scope, frequency,
judgements, reporting etc.
 The ‘menu’ will include a focus on the protection of
children and children looked after.
12 week consultation later this year

16. Children’s social care questionnaires 2015: what children told us
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17. Lisa.pascoe@ofsted.gov.uk