There’s a good article by ‘Social Work Outlaw’ in Community Care.
The gist is that after an unfavourable Ofsted inspection,
the local authority has to bring in temporary staff and turn-a-round managers
because long-serving permanent staff and managers have left or been moved on. The
result is that casework is focused only on short-term goals and that the organisation
is managed by people who are “… bullish, aggressive and oh-so testosterone
fuelled with macho posturing”.
This is a dark and depressing vision, but I suspect that in
many ‘inadequate’ local authorities it is pretty near the truth. It is another
example of how Ofsted is part of the problem, not a solution to it.
