Wounded Ofsted is inadequate to inspect child sexual exploitation policies
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Version 0 of 1. Ofsted has had a difficult time recently. It has been castigated by the Commons education select committee for its apparent inability to identify problems in Birmingham’s Trojan horse schools, and for downgrading its ratings from outstanding to inadequate once the schools were at the centre of a media and political furore. The chair of the select committee is also quoted as saying “questions have been raised about the appropriateness of Ofsted’s framework and the reliability and robustness of its judgments”. The committee had previously expressed concerns about Ofsted and in 2011 said it wanted the inspection service to be separated into a schools inspectorate and a children’s social services inspectorate. Related: Is vigilante activity the way to catch child abusers? Ofsted has also recently been criticised by the communities and local government select committee for its failure to identify issues in Rotherham about the sexual exploitation of children and young people. It had given an adequate rating to the local council before revising and reversing its judgment at the time of media and political outrage over children being left unprotected. The committee chair stated that Ofsted’s “credibility is now on the line”. It is not the first time Ofsted has shown itself to be inconsistent, reversing its judgments amid press and political storms. In 2008, when the Baby P media frenzy was at its height, Haringey council’s Ofsted rating was moved from good to inadequate. The communities and local government select committee now wants Ofsted to inspect every council in England on their policies and practices to protect children from sexual exploitation. There is the very real danger that Ofsted, not wanting to be caught out again, will find extensive failure. Indeed, it is almost bound to do so because it does not have an inspection model that gives recognition to successful multi-agency practice. Safeguarding children from criminal predators is not a simple or single agency task. The children are intimidated into silence by their abusers, and the criminals seek to cover their tracks and stay unnoticed. This is why it is a shared task for schools, youth services, the community at large, sexual health clinics, licensing authorities, social workers and, especially, the police, to be watchful and informed. They need to work together to gather information and intelligence about vulnerable young people and the networks of potential perpetrators. They need to be available, accessible and acceptable, with what is being called assertive outreach, so young people can tell and be heard and believed. But this is not how Ofsted inspects services. Its single inspection framework concentrates on local councils and their social workers. Inspectors are restricted and limited by Ofsted’s methodology when it comes to multi-agency working. In many areas, multi-agency teams and action has developed to protect children and pursue and prosecute offenders, with comprehensive strategies to identify and build contacts and relationships with vulnerable young people. These achievements and progress is likely to go unrecognised by Ofsted. Recent experience of Ofsted is that safeguarding activity is measured by whether a young person has had a social work assessment. This is not necessarily the most appropriate process for engaging and building relationships and trust with young people and gathering intelligence about what is happening in communities. Related: Ofsted children's services report – the sector's response At the same Downing Street conference when David Cameron announced that he wanted legislation so that social workers and others in the public sector could be imprisoned if they failed to spot abuse, there were presentations about how to tackle sexual exploitation. They emphasised the importance of building local knowledge and strong multi-agency working. How sad that this may be undermined by a wounded inspectorate with a restricted methodology. There will be the consequence of even greater difficulty in recruiting and retaining social workers and others who while concerned, committed and caring for children, do not relish the threat of imprisonment and of inspectors publicly reporting that they are inadequate. What is needed is a more fit-for-purpose inspection model, an inspection culture that generates learning and development rather than damage and destruction. We need an inspectorate that stays close to services and their improvement journey, and has the confidence and courage to withstand media and political onslaughts. |