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Repeal of the duty on Ofsted to conduct an annual Children바카라 사이트檚 Services Assessment of each local authority in England

Information about the repeal of the duty on Ofsted to conduct an annual Children바카라 사이트檚 Services Assessment of each local authority in England.

• From: Department for Education, Ofsted and Tim Loughton
• Published: 18 July 2012

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

Ofsted will no longer be required to produce an annual assessment of each local authority바카라 사이트檚 children바카라 사이트檚 services, following the repeal of section 138 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006.

The local authority assessments, which were drawn from relevant findings from Ofsted바카라 사이트檚 inspection and regulation of education, care and skills, and published performance data, were abolished as part of wider changes to local authority accountability arrangements across 바카라 사이트. The repeal of section 138 will remove an unnecessary bureaucratic burden from both local authorities and Ofsted.

Across local authorities there has been a concern that the children바카라 사이트檚 services assessment is a bureaucratic exercise that adds little understanding of children바카라 사이트檚 services in an area over and above the individual inspections that underlie it. It is seen to make little, if any, contribution to driving service improvement. Ending the annual children바카라 사이트檚 services assessment generates a cost saving to Ofsted of approximately 拢1.6 million per year.

Following an eight-week targeted consultation exercise, the draft Legislative Reform (Annual Review of Local Authorities) Order was laid before Parliament on 10 May 2012. After scrutiny by the relevant Parliamentary committees, and a short debate in the House of Lords, the Legislative Reform Order was approved and has been signed by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families, Tim Loughton, who originally announced the 바카라 사이트바카라 사이트檚 intention to repeal the relevant legislation in December 2010. The repeal takes effect immediately and, as a result, Ofsted will not be undertaking a children바카라 사이트檚 services assessment process this year.

Further Information

The annual children바카라 사이트檚 services assessment provided, for each top tier local authority in England, a summary of the outcomes of the inspections of services and settings carried out by Ofsted during the year and an analysis of the performance data related to each authority. Ratings are awarded on a four-point scale:

1. performs poorly
2. performs adequately
3. performs well
4. performs excellently.

The 2011 the ratings were:

• performing poorly - 15 local authorities
• performing adequately - 33 local authorities
• performing well - 76 local authorities
• performs excellently - 28 local authorities

Ending the annual children바카라 사이트檚 services assessment will have no impact on Ofsted바카라 사이트檚 other inspection activity. Ofsted has already put in place a new, universal, child focussed inspection regime for local authority services for the protection of children. A new inspection regime for local authority fostering, adoption and looked after children바카라 사이트檚 services will be introduced early in 2013, and a new, multi-inspectorate child protection inspection framework (developed in partnership with the Care Quality Commission, Her Majesty바카라 사이트檚 Inspectorate of Constabulary, Her Majesty바카라 사이트檚 Inspectorate of Probation and Her Majesty바카라 사이트檚 Inspectorate of Prisons), which fully implements the inspection recommendations from Professor Eileen Munro바카라 사이트檚 Review of Child Protection in England, will follow in mid-2013. Ofsted launched consultation exercises on their proposals in these areas on 11 July.

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Published 18 July 2012