Children’s homes take worries to MPs

The government is losing credibility with the children’s home
sector after three reorganisations of inspections in as many years,
according to providers.

The Independent Children’s Home Association will ask MPs to examine
the decision to abolish the Commission for Social Care Inspection
when parliament returns. In a statement to the Commons education
and skills select committee, association co-chairs Tom Starkey and
Andrew Rome said that inspectors had become less bureaucratic and
spent far more time with young people, ascertaining their views and
studying their care history.

“There is a real danger that this momentum may be lost in a
transfer to the new inspectorate,” they stated.

The government announced last month that the responsibilities of
the CSCI would be divided between Ofsted and the Healthcare
Commission in 2008.