On the day following the publication of the Daniel Pelka Serious
Case Review, the BBC reports that Ofsted has revisited councils previously
judged by inspectors to have child protection weaknesses and has found that one
third are still failing to meet minimum requirements. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24139462
I was struck by the comments attributed to Andrew Webb, chairman
of the Association of Directors of Children's Services. He is quoted as saying that
he agreed the system was creaking, but he expressed concern about the way in
which Ofsted rates councils.
He argued that Ofsted “… have a way of looking at systems
and services which is designed to find fault."
What I find most alarming is that there seems to be no clear
summary of information and analysis from Ofsted detailing and examining the
likely causes of the ‘inadequacy’ and pointing to ways of correcting it.
Ofsted appears to be jumping up and down telling councils
that their services are poor, but not doing much to give them the tools to
achieve improvement.
But then, maybe it’s not about quality but about politics?
