Memorandum submitted by the LGA
INTRODUCTION
This paper is a submission to the Education
and Skills Select Committee's Inquiry into the Work of Ofsted
taking place on Wednesday 9 November 2005. It outlines the LGA's
key messages on inspection including the single inspectorate for
children and learners.
The LGA speaks for nearly 500 local authorities
that represent over 50 million people and spend some £78
billion pounds per annum and exists to promote better local government.
We believe that the "future is local".
LGA KEY MESSAGES
— The LGA has repeatedly called for
a more strategic inspection regime that increases effectiveness
across all inspectorates, reduces the burdens and costs for councils,
and puts in place a more robust mechanism to coordinate inspections.
— This should be reflected across the
new landscape for inspectorates, with the proposed merger of the
eleven existing inspectorates into four streamlined bodies, including
the proposed new single inspectorate for children and learners.
— A new single inspectorate for children
should be an opportunity to plan for the functions of children
and young people's services inspection beyond the current framework.
THE NEW
FRAMEWORK FOR
INSPECTING CHILDREN'S
SERVICES
Joint Area Reviews (JARs)
JARs of children's services, which have been
piloted earlier this year in four local authority areas and are
taking place in a further twelve local authorities, are currently
subject to an evaluation commissioned by Ofsted and the Audit
Commission.
Initial feedback from the pilot authorities
suggests that the current JAR process, linked with a Corporate
Assessment (CA), is just too big. It leads to two fundamentally
separate processes and has not demonstrated a reduction in the
burden of inspection. Local authorities also question JARs' approach
to inspecting children's services. Certainly, inspection will
continue to be important in some areas—eg for vulnerable
children. It is not yet clear whether the effort and resources
is yielding sufficient results.
Annual Performance Assessment (APA)
Local council experience of the first year of
the new APA of children and young peoples' services suggest assessments
were positive but there were concerns about:
— the robustness of the data that informed
the process;
— the consistency and quality of the
inspectorate response during and after the APA meeting; and
— costs vs. benefits of the process.
A single inspectorate
The LGA does not think that the Department for
Education and Skills proposals for a single inspectorate go far
enough in addressing the overall purpose of inspection, children's
inspection in a broader context, and in tackling the underlying
functions of inspection.
We think inspection should be seen as only one
lever of improvement. Inspections should be more regular and intensive
where performance is weaker, but fewer, lighter, and based more
on internal performance management where results are consistently
good.
There must be continued regular inspection of
high risk areas of delivery, eg around safeguarding children.
Beyond this, the key areas of focus ought to be on:
— a proportionate assessment of performance
management capacity;
— the development of effective capacity
to track impact on outcomes for children; and
— the capacity to improve.
There should not be a "one size fits all"
approach for inspecting councils and partnerships, but rather
a more tailored targeted system.
A gatekeeper role
The LGA welcomes the proposed merger of inspectorates
provided that this reduces the burden of inspection on the ground.
An LGA survey in late 2004 found that four out of five local councils
felt that inspections were not well coordinated. We would like
to see an effective "gatekeeper" for local inspections.
This should be a role that goes beyond coordinating the timing
of inspections to one that determines the need for inspection
as well as its scope and nature. This should be decided in conjunction
with local councils and their partner organisations.
November 2005
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