Ofsted launches consultation on care leavers inspection judgement

Today we have launched a consultation on proposals for a new judgement on the experiences and progress of care leavers to be included in our local authority children’s services (ILACS) inspection framework.

The consultation runs from 20 June until 29 July 2022. Responses will inform our updated arrangements, which we aim to introduce from January 2023.

We propose to:

• introduce a separate new judgement within ILACS: “The experience and progress of care leavers”

• review and update the existing evaluation criteria to ensure they are relevant and reflect what good looks like for care leavers

• introduce the new judgement once all local authorities have had at least one ILACS inspection outcome

The aim of the proposals is for us to provide a clearer statement about the experiences of care leavers when we evaluate the effectiveness of local authority children’s services, and to focus on the things that make the most difference to their lives.

Please respond using our electronic survey.

Yvette Stanley, Ofsted’s National Director for Social Care, said:

Our ILACS inspections have done much to shine a light on the experiences of care leavers and the work by local authorities to support them. But we think we can do more. Introducing a separate judgement reflects the priority we think should be given to providing high quality support to care leavers.

We encourage everyone to contribute their views through our consultation, to help us give care leavers a clearer profile within these inspections.