Speaking at the Association of Directors of Children’s Services annual conference, Ofsted chief inspector Martyn Oliver and national director Yvette Stanley used the platform to launch a consultation on major changes to children’s social care inspection. The proposals cover the two main frameworks used for local authorities and social care providers, the grading scale applied to inspection findings, and the way inspectors treat safeguarding risks linked to illegal unregistered children’s homes. Ofsted presented the exercise as a structural review rather than a minor update. The stated aim is to produce inspection reports that are more precise, better aligned with government reform plans and more useful to children, families, practitioners and commissioners.
Ofsted said the consultation builds on evidence gathered through its Big Listen exercise and on recent changes to education inspection. In social care, the regulator said it now wants to strengthen the place of lived experience in inspection, with more consistent use of children’s, young people’s, parents’ and carers’ views when judging services. The policy direction also tracks the government’s wider children’s social care reform agenda. In practice, that means greater weight on early family support, faster and more effective child protection, stronger kinship and fostering arrangements, and a clearer test of whether services help children stay close to people who matter to them. The speech also repeated a practical request to local leaders: if directors have concerns about safeguarding or inclusion in schools or early years settings, Ofsted wants that intelligence shared before inspectors arrive. The regulator said earlier warnings help build a fuller picture of local provision.
To support the case for reform, Ofsted pointed to recent inspection outcomes that it said show what improvement looks like in practice. North East Lincolnshire was cited as an example of recovery from inadequate to good, with some outstanding features, while North Lincolnshire and York were highlighted for sustained strong performance. Norfolk and Coventry were used to illustrate the value of strong early help, consistent multi-agency working and enough local provision for children in care. For policy professionals, that part of the speech mattered because it signalled what Ofsted is likely to reward under any renewed framework: reliable service quality, management grip, earlier intervention and placements that allow children to remain connected to their communities and relationships.
The most significant proposed change within the social care common inspection framework is a new graded evaluation area on children’s enduring relationships. Ofsted said the existing three graded areas would remain, but each area would stand on its own and the current overall judgement on the experience and progress of children would be removed. That would alter the way provider performance is read. Instead of a single summary label carrying most of the weight, inspectors would make a more separated assessment of practice, including whether children are helped to build and keep stable relationships with family, carers, trusted adults and wider support networks.
In inspecting local authority children’s services, Ofsted proposes to split the current ‘help and protection’ judgement into two distinct areas. The regulator argues that early family help and formal protection work should be judged separately so that both can be tested properly rather than absorbed into a single rating. A further proposed judgement would cover how well councils work with family networks. Inspectors could look at family group decision-making, the use of wider relatives and friends for care or respite, and work to reunify children safely with family after a period in care. Ofsted also intends to keep separate judgements for children in care and care leavers, noting that those two areas currently receive different grades in 45% of inspections.
Across both frameworks, Ofsted wants to move to a five-point grading scale: ‘expected standard’, ‘strong standard’, ‘exceptional’, ‘needs attention’ and ‘urgent improvement’. The centre point would be ‘expected standard’, defined as meeting legal requirements, regulatory standards and expected practice. Higher grades would require evidence of consistent performance and sustained positive change in children’s experiences. The regulator also proposes a ‘secure fit’ model for grading, under which services would need to meet the full criteria for each grade rather than offsetting a weakness with strength elsewhere. If any practice judgement fell to ‘urgent improvement’, the local authority would face monitoring visits, with the Department for Education expected to settle the linked intervention and improvement arrangements.
The sharpest language in the speech was reserved for sufficiency and the use of unregistered children’s homes. Ofsted said too many children are still being placed far from home, outside their communities and away from people who know them, with the greatest concern arising where children are living in settings that have no regulatory oversight. Martyn Oliver argued that the national issue is not simply one of headline supply. According to the figures set out in the speech, England now has more than 15,000 places in registered children’s homes and 10,000 children in care; the number of homes rose by 63% between 2019 and 2025, while the number of children in residential care rose by 10%. Over the previous 14 months alone, the number of homes increased by 22%. Ofsted’s view is that the system is failing on location, matching and access to the right homes, not only on total volume.
The consultation proposes two direct changes on illegal unregistered provision. First, Ofsted wants evidence of its use to sit solely within the ‘impact of leaders’ judgement, on the basis that the central issue is whether councils are meeting their duty to secure safe, lawful placements. Secondly, the use of unregistered provision would become a limiting criterion, meaning a council using it could not achieve ‘expected standard’. That would not create an automatic single outcome. Ofsted said inspectors would still look at frequency, duration, the steps leaders have taken to avoid such placements, and whether bespoke providers are moving quickly towards registration. The regulator also said it is trying to reduce its own registration backlog by giving priority to applications in areas of highest need, with the aim of increasing lawful capacity more quickly.
Ofsted is also proposing a common reset point for councils. Every local authority would receive a standard inspection as its first visit under the renewed inspecting local authority children’s services framework, regardless of its previous grade. After that, the routine inspection cycle would move from at least once every three years to once every four years, while the regulator concentrates more activity on services at the bottom of the scale. For local authorities, providers and sector bodies, the consultation is therefore about more than report wording. It would change what is inspected, how performance is graded and when intervention is triggered. Ofsted said it will continue to test the proposals over the summer with professionals, children and families before settling the renewed framework.