By considering the experiences of children who are subject to compulsory supervision orders and living at home with their parents, we aim to better understand what is helping to improve outcomes for children and young people and what is getting in the way.
Our three key lines of enquiry are:
- Children and young people are well supported to live with their families. This support helps to keep them safe, overcome difficulties and makes a positive difference in their lives.
- The services children and young people receive are well planned and delivered in a way which is compassionate and by staff who put children and young people at the heart of decision-making. People in the workforce ensure that children, young people and parents are meaningfully listened to, heard and included.
- Leaders and managers work well together to create and maintain a joined-up system of care which delivers the right services to each child at the right time. This provides children and young people, their parents and the workforce with help, support and accountability.
In our inspection report we will consider these three key lines of enquiry. We will evaluate four quality indicators from our quality framework using the six-point scale. These are:
- Quality indicator 2.1: Impact on children and young people
- Quality indicator 5.3: Care planning, managing risk and effective intervention
- Quality indicator 5.4: Involving individual children, young people and families
- Quality indicator 9.2: Leadership of strategy and direction
Children and young people have told us about the importance of being able to experience sincere human contact and enduring relationships. Our approach therefore looks carefully at how well services and systems are organised so that children and young people can experience continuity in their care and develop and sustain lasting relationships. Our inspections also consider whether legal measures are being used appropriately to achieve security and stability for children.
Staff who are well trained and who feel valued and empowered, are more likely to be able to provide high quality services for children and young people. We therefore explore how well staff are supported to carry out their task. Our joint inspections will look at the services provided for them by health workers (for example school nurses, health visitors and doctors), social workers, police officers and lots of other people who work with them and their families.
We know that partners recognise that assessment and planning are critical to ensure the safety of, and improving outcomes for, children and young people. However, we also know that performance in assessment and planning is not as consistently strong across the country as it needs to be. We will look to see if robust quality assurance and high-quality reflective supervision are in place to support these important processes.
Strong collaborative leadership is essential and challenging in the context of providing high quality public services in an integrated landscape. We consider the effectiveness of leadership and how well leaders can demonstrate what difference they are making to the lives of children and young people.