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Children's Services and Skills

In July 2005 I launched a consultation on the creation of a single inspectorate for children and learners. I am today publishing my conclusions in the light of the responses. I am grateful to everyone who responded to the consultation and I have taken careful consideration of the points made, developing my proposals significantly in the light of those comments. I intend to proceed, as proposed in the consultation, to establish an enlarged Ofsted. This will be achieved by bringing together in Ofsted the children's social care remit of the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI), the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS) inspection remit of Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Court Administration (HMICA) and the inspection remit of the Adult Learning Inspectorate (ALI). The enlarged organisation will have the formal title of the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills. ALI, CSCI and HMICA have played vital roles in driving up standards in their respective sectors. But I am convinced of the benefits to users and providers of services of an inspectorate that can look across a wide range of services as they affect children, young people, families and adult learners. The enlarged Ofsted will be able to follow learning from early years through to adult and work-based settings. It will support the needs of employers and business whilst at the same time sustaining focused, high-quality inspections of standards in our schools and, building on existing activity, across wider services for children, including social care for vulnerable children and young people. The changes also reflect the drive to integrate services around improving outcomes for the user, for example through the integration of local services for children as set out in the Green Paper, ““Every Child Matters”” and the bringing together of academic and vocational learning outlined in the 14–19 White Paper. It is part of the wider reform of public service inspection to focus on needs of users, generate improvement in the services inspected, and help deliver better value for money. Inspection and regulation have been powerful levers for improvement in services for children and learners in recent years. As we move into the next stage of inspection reform it will be essential to build on the strengths of current arrangements and the expertise of existing inspectorates, but also to reflect current and planned changes in the pattern of services, new arrangements for performance management and accountability and our increasing knowledge about what makes for effective inspection and regulation. The Government will continue to work closely with inspectorates and others to ensure an effective transfer of inspection remits.