Open consultation
Improving the way Ofsted inspects children’s social care
Applies to England
Consultation description
Are you a parent, carer, child or young person?
We want to make some changes to the frameworks we use to inspect children’s social care to help us really focus on what matters most to children, young people and families.
We’ve designed a one-question option, so you can quickly tell us your views.
Watch the video below to see what we’re proposing, then click the green button to tell us what you think.
Changing how Ofsted inspects children’s social care: a quick summary
Consultation overview
We’re asking for your views on our proposals to change 2 of the frameworks we use to inspect children’s social care:
- the inspecting local authority children’s services (ILACS) framework, which we use to inspect children’s services run by local authorities
- the social care common inspection framework (SCCIF), which sets out how we inspect and regulate children’s social care providers, like children’s homes and fostering agencies
The proposals include:
- adopting a set of ‘ambitions’ which we will use to guide all policy-making for ILACS and SCCIF
- aligning our frameworks more closely with the goals of the government’s reforms
- moving beyond headline judgements towards reporting that reflects the real complexity of children’s social care
- improving the ways we seek out the voices of children, young people and families
- using Ofsted’s system‑wide insight to confront the biggest challenges in the care system
- changing the schedule for our ILACS inspections, so they continue to support improvement and focus on the authorities who need it most
Read our full proposals in the consultation document below.
Share your views
Documents
Updates to this page
Published 7 July 2026