ILACS implementation review

Steve Crocker, Chair of the ADCS Standards, Performance and Inspection Policy Committee, said:

“Whilst we’re still working through much of the detail of these evaluations of the implementation of the ILACS, we will continue our constructive discussions with Ofsted about their own recommendations and those of the University of Birmingham’s independent team. Indeed, we have previously flagged issues around single worded judgements, quality assurance, how best to gauge the impact of leadership and practice ourselves as well as the scheduling of inspections.

“The immediate changes to be made to the framework as a result of this exercise, such as a better match between the size of authority and the number of inspectors involved in site visits, are welcome, and we are already in discussion with the inspectorate about sharing some self evaluation exemplars going forward.

“Some more significant changes have also been suggested by the independent evaluators. We have previously raised, and would welcome further discussions about, quality assurance, we understand from our members that there can be regional differences. We agree that it will be increasingly important to understand how the wider context within which children’s services operate in terms of the corporate context, financial constraints, growth pressures and the strength of partnership relations can be brought within the scope of inspector’s judgements going forward.”

ENDS

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