Council chiefs welcome Ofsted’s focus on inclusion
03/02/2025 Local authority leaders have welcomed Ofsted’s greater focus on inclusion as part of the proposed overhaul of how schools are inspected. |
Leicester takes issue with watchdog's criticism
31/01/2025 Leicester City Council has said a newly-published Ofsted report ‘does not accurately reflect' its children's services. |
Knowsley leaving children 'being harmed or at risk'
21/01/2025 Regulator Ofsted has rated Knowsley MBC's children's services inadequate, warning the council was leaving young people being ‘harmed or at risk of harm'. |
500% rise in unregistered and illegal home use
28/11/2024 The number of vulnerable children in care placed in unregistered and illegal homes has shot up by 500% in three years, data released by Ofsted has shown. |
Council failing to respond to children at risk of ‘harm’
29/07/2024 Sefton Council is failing to respond in a timely manner to cases where children are at risk of ‘significant harm’, an Ofsted monitoring report concludes. |
Council leader resigns after bankruptcy warning
18/07/2024 The leader of Cheshire East Council resigned yesterday ahead of a vote of no confidence after a report raised serious concerns over the council’s finances. |
Council resists calls for leader to quit after critical SEND report
15/07/2024 West Northamptonshire Council has resisted calls for its head of children’s services to quit following a damning Ofsted and CQC report. |
SEND experience in Bury has been ‘poor for too long’
09/05/2024 Ofsted has found ‘widespread and/or systemic failings’, its lowest rating, in Bury’s special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) provision. |
One-word Ofsted judgements to be retained
25/04/2024 The controversial one-word Ofsted judgements for schools are here to stay despite criticism after the suicide of headteacher Ruth Perry. |
Struggles continue for scandal-hit council contractor
16/04/2024 A council contractor previously at the centre of a residential care abuse scandal has continued to struggle since it closed the sites. |
Over 700 vulnerable children placed in illegal homes
15/04/2024 Councils in England placed hundreds of vulnerable school-age children in unregulated homes last year due to the shortage of secure places. |
Ofsted rates Havering's children's services inadequate
16/02/2024 Havering LBC’s children’s services have been rated inadequate by Government regulator Ofsted after a two-week on-site inspection. |
Suffolk councillors resign over ‘widespread’ SEND failings
05/02/2024 Three councillors have resigned their posts at Suffolk CC after a damning report found there were ‘widespread’ failings affecting SEND outcomes. |
Unions call for school inspections to be suspended
21/12/2023 School inspections must be suspended until Ofsted implements recommendations to reform the system following the death of head teacher Ruth Perry, unions say. |
Lack of capacity hindering early help
07/11/2023 A lack of capacity is hindering early help services for children and families, a joint report by three watchdogs has found. |
Concern over hotel use for care leavers
02/11/2023 Too many care leavers live in hotels or other unsuitable accommodation in Devon but oversight at the county council has improved, Ofsted has found. |
Swindon children's services 'inadequate'
11/09/2023 Swindon BC’s children’s services have been judged inadequate by Ofsted. |
Ofsted warns against placing children in unregistered homes
15/08/2023 Ofsted has warned councils against placing vulnerable children, including those subject to deprivation of liberty orders, in unregistered children’s homes. |
Scandal-hit firm reports losses
14/08/2023 A firm at the centre of a residential care abuse scandal has reported operating losses of £5.8m for the year to June 2022. |
Progress at Herefordshire’s children’s services
03/08/2023 Ofsted has found improvements at Herefordshire’s children’s services but said more should be done to ensure consistent progress. |
Councils cannot afford new care regime, CCN warns
21/07/2023 The cost of new regulations for teenagers in care could be nine times more than Government funding and result in providers withdrawing beds, warns report. |
Ofsted chief apologises after Doncaster abuse and neglect
13/06/2023 Chief inspector Amanda Spielman has apologised after Ofsted failed to uncover ‘very serious’ abuse and neglect at three residential settings in Doncaster. |
Ofsted announces shakeup after suicide
12/06/2023 The system for inspecting schools in England is facing a shakeup after the suicide of head teacher Ruth Perry led to calls for reform. |
Kent receives improvement notice for SEND failings
06/04/2023 An improvement notice has been issued to Kent CC after it failed to turn around its special educational needs and disability (SEND) services. |
East Riding children's services rated ‘good’
28/03/2023 East Riding of Yorkshire Council's children's services have been rated good, less than three years after being told by inspectors they were inadequate. |
Head teacher’s death prompts call for Ofsted inspection pause
21/03/2023 Education unions have called for Ofsted inspections to be paused following the death of a head teacher who was waiting for a report on her school. |
Herefordshire Council to retain control of children’s services
02/03/2023 Herefordshire Council will be able to retain control over its troubled children's services department for now but it will have to demonstrate improvements. |
Commissioner warns children's services could be removed from Sefton
07/02/2023 A Government-appointed commissioner has warned Sefton Council’s children’s services are still in ‘severe difficulties’ and could be removed from local control. |
Ofsted downgrades over 300 ‘outstanding’ schools
22/11/2022 Hundreds of schools that had a graded inspection last year did not retain their outstanding grade, an Ofsted report has revealed. |
Warning of 'last minute dash' to find care placements for children
18/11/2022 Local authorities are being forced to make a ‘last minute dash’ to find homes for children coming into care due to a lack of suitable accommodation, a report has warned today. |
Improvement notice for Nottingham's children's services
25/10/2022 An improvement notice has been handed to Nottingham City Council over its children’s services. |
Ofsted blasts Cheshire East’s safeguarding services
27/09/2022 Child safeguarding services in Cheshire East have ‘serious and fundamental weaknesses’ which leave children at risk of exploitation, according to Ofsted. |
Notts council children’s service ‘Inadequate’
05/09/2022 Nottingham City Council has expressed regret that its children’s service is ‘not where it should be’ after Ofsted rated them as ‘Inadequate’. |
Council’s children’s services ‘improved in all areas’
15/08/2022 Coventry City Council’s children's services have been rated as ‘good’ following its latest Ofsted inspection. |
Ofsted calls for social care workforce strategy
27/07/2022 The watchdog the need is ‘more urgent than ever’ as it published a report looking at the ongoing impact of COVID-19 on children’s social care. |
Ofsted rates Kent children’s services ‘outstanding’
06/07/2022 Kent children’s services rated ‘outstanding’ with inspectors recognising the council cares for ‘unparalleled numbers’ of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. |
York council set to share children’s social care action plan
22/06/2022 York Council will share a plan outlining how the council will improve its services for children after an inspection said the services ‘required improvement’. |
Consultation for new SEND inspection framework launched
14/06/2022 Ofsted and the CQC have today launched a consultation on a new draft framework for inspecting local provision for children and young people with SEND. |
Children’s services in Manchester rated ‘Good’
20/05/2022 Children’s services delivered by Manchester council have been rated ‘Good’ by Ofsted for the first time since the body started inspecting council services. |
Improvements in Torbay Council’s children’s services ‘impressive’, Ofsted say
19/05/2022 Torbay Council’s children’s services have ‘significantly improved’ after years of underperforming, an Ofsted inspection has concluded. |
Commission calls for end to school ‘exclusions culture’
29/04/2022 The rise in the number of exclusions from schools leads to teenagers being put at risk of exploitation and serious violence, new report warns. |
Ofsted to increase focus on early years education
26/04/2022 The schools watchdog will increase its focus on early years education over the next five years as part of the effort to help children impacted by the pandemic. |
Report calls for a national audit on needs of children in care
13/04/2022 There needs to be a national audit around the needs of children in care, a new study from Ofsted has said today. |
Government intervenes over council's 'inadequate' children's services
11/04/2022 The Government has issued a statutory direction to Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council forcing it to improve its children’s social care services. |
Councils to be allowed to set up multi-academy trusts
28/03/2022 Local authority leaders have welcomed the Government’s plan to allow councils to set up and run their own multi-academy trusts. |
A third of care leavers say they left care before they were ready
19/01/2022 More than a third of care leavers feel they left care too early, a new survey has revealed today. |
Council chiefs welcome new measures to improve children’s social care
16/12/2021 Local authority leaders have welcomed new measures aimed at stopping poor quality supported accommodation providers and rooting out bad practice. |
Schools show improvement despite pandemic, Ofsted finds
13/12/2021 Schools across the UK have shown signs of improvement despite the impact of the pandemic, school inspectors say. |
Spielman: No silver bullet for children's social care
07/12/2021 Ofsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman has warned there is no ‘silver bullet’ to the long-term problems in the children’s social care sector. |
Council pledges to support children after services rated ‘inadequate’
29/11/2021 The leadership of North East Lincolnshire Council has pledged to protect and support young people after the local authority’s children’s services were judged ‘inadequate’. |
Ofsted to inspect all schools by summer 2025
17/11/2021 All schools and colleges will be inspected by Ofsted by summer 2025 to determine how education is recovering from the pandemic. |
Figures paint 'bleak picture' of foster care
12/11/2021 A lack of foster carers means vulnerable children are not getting the support they need, Ofsted has warned. |
SEND children being left behind by council
31/08/2021 Children with special educational needs are being left behind by council services across Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, inspectors have found. |
Children's services in Sunderland leap from Inadequate to Outstanding
20/08/2021 Children's services in Sunderland, delivered by Together for Children, are the first in the country to make the leap from Inadequate to Outstanding. |
Ofsted publishes new guidance for confronting sexual abuse
29/06/2021 Ofsted has published updated education inspection handbooks, clarifying how inspectors will assess how schools and colleges confront sexual harassment, abuse and violence among children and young people. |
Most children in care feel safe where they live
21/06/2021 A new survey has found that while the majority of children in social care settings are happy where they live, nearly one in 20 regularly feel unsafe. |
Sexual harassment ‘normalised’ for children, Ofsted warns
10/06/2021 Sexual harassment, including online sexual abuse, has become ‘normalised’ for children and young people, Ofsted has found. |
Council chiefs call for review of SEND system to be completed ‘urgently’
14/05/2021 Council leaders have called on Government to ‘urgently complete’ its review of the SEND system and to ensure councils have funding to support SEND children. |
Ofsted to visit schools facing sexual abuse allegations
08/04/2021 Ofsted has announced it will visit a sample of schools and colleges in England where sexual abuse claims have been made. |
West Sussex to keep control of children’s services for at least 12 months
11/12/2020 West Sussex County Council will keep control of its children’s services for at least another year following improvements made, the Department for Education (DfE) has said. |
Pandemic made vulnerable children 'invisible' report warns
01/12/2020 Vulnerable children became 'invisible' during the pandemic, Ofsted's chief inspector warned today. |
Capacity in foster care is stalling, data reveals
13/11/2020 The number of applications to become a foster carer has fallen by 10% since March last year, new data has revealed. |
Ofsted warns of COVID impact on SEND support
09/11/2020 The pandemic has ‘seriously affected’ support for special educational needs an disabilities (SEND), according to Ofsted. |
Spike in child abuse since pandemic
06/11/2020 Ofsted’s chief inspector has warned of an increase in the number of child injuries and deaths uncovered by local authorities since the onset of the pandemic. |
Local areas to get extra support to strengthen SEND services
10/07/2020 Ofsted and Care Quality Commission (CQC) will visit local areas to help them improve their SEND services following the disruption caused by COVID-19. |
Middlesbrough to keep control of its children's services
05/06/2020 Middlesbrough Council will be allowed to keep control of its 'inadequate' children's services to allow further improvements to be made. |
MPs tell department to 'get a grip' on SEND
05/05/2020 The Department for Education (DfE) does not have a grip on mounting pressure in the special educational needs and disability (SEND) system, a watchdog has found. |
Devon CC’s children’s services criticised for ‘serious failures’
19/03/2020 Ofsted has found ‘serious failures’ in services for young people in Devon as they discovered a minority of care leavers had been living in tents. |
Yorkshire council criticises Ofsted rating based on ‘short inspection visit’
16/03/2020 A local authority in Yorkshire has said it is ‘disappointed’ by an Ofsted rating of its children’s social care services which concluded they were ‘inadequate’. |
Council first outside London to transform flagging children’s services to ‘outstanding’
03/03/2020 A Midlands council has become the first outside of London to transform children’s services from ‘requires improvement to be good’ to ‘outstanding’. |
Council announces £4.4m for ‘significantly declined’ children’s services
07/02/2020 Hull City Council has announced a series of measures to improve children’s services after Ofsted concluded that the experiences of children in care had ‘significantly declined.’ |
Councils sent back to drawing board on SEND
28/01/2020 Councils have been sent back to the drawing board after a quango ripped apart their plans to recover massive special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) deficits. |
Plans for ‘universal’ school inspections launched
10/01/2020 Ofsted will visit all schools judged to be outstanding within the next five academic years, the Government has announced. |
‘Stuck’ schools need more tailored support, inspectors say
08/01/2020 Hundreds of schools in England are ‘stuck’ in a cycle of low performance and need more tailored support to improve, a new Ofsted report has found. |
School league tables ‘misrepresent’ performance, northern leaders say
30/10/2019 Secondary school league tables misrepresent performance by failing to show the difference when pupil background is taken into account, northern leaders say. |
Reading’s children’s services improvement ‘huge achievement'
30/10/2019 A council-owned company has moved Reading's children's services out of its ‘inadequate’ Ofsted rating. |
Council to re-direct £5.5m to 'inadequate' children’s services
18/10/2019 Stoke-on-Trent City Council has approved plans to invest £5.5m into its children’s services following an ‘inadequate’ rating from Ofsted earlier this year. |
Children with special educational needs home schooled ‘as last resort’
15/10/2019 Parents of SEN children often home school their kids as a last resort rather than a preferred choice, a new Ofsted report has revealed. |
Six councils conned into spending thousands of pounds on illegal school
03/10/2019 Six local authorities were duped into paying thousands of pounds to educate vulnerable children in an unsafe illegal school. |
Labour pledges to scrap ‘unfit for purpose’ Ofsted
23/09/2019 Labour has vowed to scrap Ofsted and replace it with regular ‘health checks’ led by local government. |
New measures to improve underperforming schools
02/09/2019 A new specialist academy trust to take on and turn around the most challenging schools will be launched by the Government. |
Commissioner appointed to oversee council’s ‘inadequate’ children’s services
27/08/2019 The Government has appointed a commissioner to improve Medway Council’s children’s services after Ofsted rated them ‘inadequate’. |
'Slow progress' two years after inadequate judgement
24/05/2019 Gloucestershire CC is making ‘slow progress’ in improving its services for its children and young people two years after it was judged inadequate, Ofsted has found. |
Council schools get better Ofsted ratings than academies, report finds
23/05/2019 Council-maintained schools are more likely to remain ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ than their academy counterparts, new research suggests. |
Suffolk CC’s children’s services awarded ‘outstanding’
22/05/2019 Ofsted inspectors have awarded children’s services at Suffolk County Council the top grade of ‘outstanding'. |
Hull council commits £2m to improve ‘inadequate’ children’s services
20/05/2019 Hull CC has promised to ‘accelerate’ its improvement plans and invest an extra £2m into its children’s services after they were rated ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted. |
New school inspections framework to discourage ‘teaching to the test’
14/05/2019 Teachers have welcomed Ofsted's new inspection framework which pledges to focus on curriculum, behaviour and development rather than on test results. |
Schools ‘fear-monger’ to remove pupils, survey finds
10/05/2019 Teachers have told Ofsted that they want to see more support for parents to help them push back against the practice of ‘off-rolling’. |
Ofsted to retain grading system in new inspection framework
30/04/2019 Ofsted has decided to retain its current 4-point grading system when it launches its new inspection framework in September. |
Call for inspection pause in case of Brexit hit
10/04/2019 Council chiefs have urged Whitehall to be ready to ease pressures on the sector for up to six months if Brexit threatens to stretch capacity. |
Children ‘not being protected’ by Stoke-on-Trent Council
19/03/2019 Children’s social care services are ‘inadequate’ at Stoke-on-Trent City Council, according to the findings of a new Ofsted inspection. |
Education watchdog calls time on ‘teaching to the test'
16/01/2019 Ofsted says it is moving away from its focus on performance data as the watchdog launches a consultation on proposals for changes to its inspection framework. |
Bromley children’s services undergo ‘remarkable’ improvements
09/01/2019 Bromley council are ‘extremely proud’ after Ofsted rated their children’s services, which were ‘inadequate’ two years ago, ‘good’ with ‘outstanding’ leadership. |
Wakefield avoids intervention over children's services
13/12/2018 Wakefield Council should retain control of its children’s services, a commissioner has recommended. |
Nearly 500 underperforming schools ‘betrayal of children’s futures.’
01/11/2018 The chief inspector of Ofsted has warned that the existence of nearly 500 ‘stuck’ schools is ‘nothing short of a scandal.’ |
Birmingham ‘lacks’ leadership on SEND issues
11/09/2018 Birmingham City Council has said it is ‘very disappointed’ by the results of a special educational needs and disabilities inspection and said it would take urgent action to make ‘significant improvements’. |
Ofsted ‘fig leaf’ for Whitehall failures on school standards
07/09/2018 Ofsted is not providing the level of independent assurance about the quality of education that schools and parents need, MPs warn. |
Thousands of children in care where councils are providing failing services, warns report
20/08/2018 Politicians have been accused of ignoring a 'silent crisis' of substandard care for children who are later facing social and economic problems in their adult lives. |
An 'outstanding' example for children's services
09/08/2018 A county in the north of England provides a shining example of how to run children's care services, writes Mark Whitehead. |
Inspectors praise Peterborough’s ‘thriving’ children’s services
07/08/2018 Inspectors have praised Peterborough City Council for creating the conditions for the city’s children’s services ‘to thrive’. |
Shell is helping power the journey towards a circular paving industry with Shell Bitumen LT R, a new product for roads that uses plastics destined for landfill as part of the additives to make the bitumen.
Effective Energy Group is now offering its support to the 40 Local Authorities who have received a share of the £430m to deliver their projects on the ground by surveying properties and installing measures.
Dougie Belmore explains how one of the main interfaces between you and Bacs is about to change.