Ofsted to scrap single-word judgments of social care services

Ofsted is to scrap single-word judgments for its inspections of local authority children’s services and regulated social care providers, despite research finding sector support for the approach.

The regulator announced the change a day after the government ended the use of overall effectiveness ratings for state schools with immediate effect.

These will be replaced next year by a ‘report card’, providing a more detailed account of performance, with similar reforms also due to be introduced for early years and further education providers at the same time.

No date set for removal of single-word judgments

Ofsted said that local authorities and social care providers would follow suit and be assessed using a similar tool to a report card, rather than receive an outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate rating for overall effectiveness following a full inspection.

However, it said no date had been set as yet for introducing the reform in social care.

“We’re all travelling in the same direction but we might need to go at a different pace,” said Yvette Stanley, Ofsted’s national director for social care.

Response to Big Listen consultation

The decisions are part of Ofsted’s response to the Big Listen, its biggest ever consultation, carried out after a coroner found that its inspection of Caversham Primary School, Reading, in November 2022, contributed to headteacher Ruth Perry’s decision to take her own life.

The consultation, responded to by over 20,000 people, including 4,325 children, revealed strong opposition to single-word judgments.

Ofsted said these were “heavily criticised for oversimplifying the complexities of providers and not providing a full picture of their performance”. Respondents also said that they “can be damaging and lead to extra stress for staff”.

ADCS backing for policy shift

Instead, respondents wanted to see “a more detailed and nuanced reporting method”, highlighting providers’ strengths and weaknesses.

The Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) backed the removal of single-word judgments.

“ADCS has long raised concerns about the use of single-word judgments as they can only ever tell a partial story and may be unjustly negative,” said vice-president Rachael Wardell. “Using one word, or a short phrase, to describe a school, a children’s social care department or an entire system in the case of SEND, does not make sense.”

Sector supportive of single-word judgments

However, separate research with 3,496 providers and 3,831 professionals from across the sectors Ofsted regulates found those in social care were more supportive than not of single-word judgments.

Among social care providers, 47% were supportive with 34% opposed, while among sector professionals, 46% backed the approach and 29% did not. By contrast, just 28% of all providers and 26% of all professionals supported single-word verdicts.

More broadly, social care respondents to the research, carried out by IFF Research, were more positive about Ofsted than their counterparts in other sectors.

For example, almost three-quarters (72%) of social care providers said that Ofsted achieved its ambition of being trusted, compared with 46% of all providers. Also, 85% of social care providers were satisfied with their last inspection, compared with 73% of all providers.

Providers ‘sometimes feel persecuted by inspectors’

However, social care respondents to the wider Big Listen consultation voiced criticisms of Ofsted’s approach.

Some said that providers sometimes felt targeted and persecuted by inspections, rather than supported, with some inspectors open and respectful but others dismissive and agenda-driven.

And the majority of social care respondents (70%) said that an unintended consequence of Ofsted’s inspection and regulation processes was that children’s homes sometimes did not accept children with the greatest needs.

Children urge Ofsted to ask them about relationships with social workers

As part of the Big Listen, Ofsted commissioned charities Coram Voice, Career Matters and Catch22 to carry out focus groups with children in care and care leavers about their views on inspection.

They emphasised the importance of inspectors building trust with them and making sure they could speak confidentially, away from adults.

They also stressed the value of Ofsted staff asking them about their relationships with foster carers and professionals, particularly social workers.

“They want inspectors to understand how this affects them and the negative impact this relationship can have on their care and wellbeing,” Ofsted said.

Children who responded to the Big Listen survey said said the most important things Ofsted should look at when inspecting social care services was how safe children were – which was mentioned by 69% of respondents – and how happy they were (64%).

Measuring what children value

Stanley said that the report card-style assessment in social care would be based on feedback from children and young people about what they valued.

“We need to go on a journey, in social care, that will be with the professionals, children and young people, who were really clear about what they value.

“They wanted to know that we were focusing on them being safe, being happy, leaning into their experience of school etc. We will do that work to make sure that the sub-judgments measure what they value.”

Further Ofsted reforms

As well as ditching single-word judgments, Ofsted said it want to make sure that its social care common inspection framework (SCCIF) inspections took account of how children’s homes created stability for and avoided unplanned endings to placements for those in its care.

It would also seek to focus its inspections of local authority children’s services (ILACS) more on how councils support family networks and aim to keep children with their families, wherever possible and safe to do so, and deliver early-intervention services.