Joint Inspections of Children’s Services Practice Profile
Joint Inspection of Children’s Services to protect Children and Young People: What it means for the Voluntary Sector
“During the inspection process we genuinely want to work with all stakeholders including the private and voluntary sectors to support and improve services and provide constructive comments when identifying areas for improvement”
Kevin Mitchell, Lead Inspector Child Protection, HMIe
“In my experience it seemed to concentrate people’s minds on how we all work together. It is an opportunity to show the work that the organisation does and as such should be used to full advantage”
Helen Napier, Service Manager, Children 1st
Firstly, a short background to Joint Inspections of Children’s Services:
In March 2004 Ministers announced there would be a new multi-disciplinary inspection of children’s services, led by HMIe. The first task would be to undertake inspections of child protection services in all 32 local authority areas and to put in place integrated inspections for all services for children, by 2008.
The Executive sees inspection as a key component of a wider commitment to improve the quality of services for children. Joint inspections will reflect the multi-disciplinary nature of service planning and delivery and will help to assess how effectively agencies work together to deliver services to children. Inspections will evaluate service delivery on a strategic, operational and individual level.
Joint inspections will examine the outcomes for children and families as service users. This will be done by using a sample of individual records from a variety of both statutory and voluntary sector agencies, including health, social work, education, youth justice and the police, backed up by the power to discuss individual cases with professionals. The role of inspectors includes reading case records; interviewing key staff involved in some cases; interviewing children, young people and families who are willing to meet inspectors and observing children’s hearings, case conferences, reviews and work undertaken by practitioners.
The report which follows the inspection focuses on the experience of children, young people and their families of the collective range of services they have had involvement with. This will include examples of practice, where appropriate, to demonstrate why an evaluation is particularly strong or weak.
The PINS Team interviewed Kevin Mitchell of HMIe and Helen Napier of Children 1st.
Kevin is the HMIe lead inspector for Child Protection. Helen is a Service Manager for Children 1st in East Lothian who has first hand experience of the Joint Inspection process.
Through discussion more was learnt about Joint Inspections of Children’s Services, the process and its implications for the voluntary sector.
Could you tell me what you think the benefits are of moving to Joint Inspections of Children’s Services?
KM: As services are increasingly delivered in a more integrated way, I think it makes sense for those services to be inspected jointly by a multi-disciplinary inspection team. This provides a more coherent approach to inspection where the focus is on the impact and outcomes for children, young people and their families with the primary aim of inspection being to support improvement in those services.
The relationships between the public, private and voluntary sector organisations are of crucial importance to the delivery of well integrated services. Partnership working and information-sharing are therefore key features of multi-disciplinary inspection which will highlight strengths and areas for further development.
HN: For children, young people and families I think it will be beneficial because it means their views can be heard. In terms of partnership and joint working it should mean that more attention is given to this by the statutory sector. In my experience it seemed to concentrate people’s minds on how we all work together.
What does a Joint Inspection actually involve for a voluntary sector organisation?
KM: When the formal announcement of the child protection inspection is made, letters are sent to some of the larger voluntary organisations who are known to provide services within the area inviting them to comment on their relationship with the local authority. At the same time services within the local authority are asked to provide a list of services delivered in partnership with or commissioned from the private and voluntary sector. The details are provided to HMIE and the Managing Inspector will give an indication of any services which the inspection team would like to visit during the course of the inspection. The inspection co-ordinator within the local authority will then liaise with the relevant service and discuss details of any proposed visit. This may also include an opportunity to discuss the proposed visit directly with the Managing Inspector.
A visit to a service delivered by or in partnership with the voluntary sector would normally include interviews with a manager, staff and any opportunities to speak with service users where it was considered appropriate to do so and where the service users give their consent to be interviewed. I would add that it is not uncommon for a fairly extensive list of such services to be provided. Within the constraints of the inspection timetable, the inspection team will only be able to visit a few of those services and Managing Inspector must decide on those which are most relevant and representative of the partnership working with the voluntary sector in a particular area.
During visits inspectors are likely to focus on the nature of the service provision, the impact and outcomes for children, young people and families, information-sharing, training including opportunities for joint training and professional relationships with partners at operational and strategic levels.
HN: It is possible that files may be looked at, particularly if the voluntary organisation is working with one of the young people in the inspectorate’s sample of cases. There are likely to be interviews or focus groups with staff and service users, both young people and families. Also, inspectors might attend meetings or groups with the permission of service users. It is an opportunity to show the work that the organisation does and as such should be used to full advantage.
What do you think are the main implications of Joint Inspections for the voluntary sector?
KM: Self-evaluation is a complementary process to inspection and it follows that self-evaluation also requires to be undertaken individually and collectively by all those involved in delivering integrated children’s services in a particular geographic area.
During the course of inspection inspectors will evaluate the results of any self-evaluation which has been carried out individually or collectively. I would encourage all voluntary sector services to make use of the document “How well are children and young people protected and their needs met – Self-evaluation using quality indicators” published by HMIE and available on the website http://www.hmie.gov.uk/ .This publication sets out generic quality indicators that can be drawn on for both self-evaluation and inspection. The indicators are designed to help providers of services to identify the strengths in their provision and to identify where further development or improvement is required.
As indicated above, inspectors will focus on information-sharing between services including the voluntary sector and will be particularly keen to identify and evaluate any information-sharing protocols that have been developed. Inspectors will also focus on the levels of communication and relationships with children and families and the extent to which they are kept informed and involved.
HN: Quite aside from the inspection we should be trying to evaluate outcomes and to record in a clear and easily understood fashion. The Joint Inspection quality indicators and framework for standards can help inform this.
I think Joint Inspections will bring benefits in that it will help services understand that we may need to share information with other agencies. The process should encourage greater partnership work. It also brings added value for the children, young people and families we support. Some family members were happy to have the opportunity to speak with the inspectors and give their views. Most importantly, I think Joint Inspections will place voluntary sector organisations more firmly in the frame in terms of strategic planning.
Could you tell us a little bit from your perspective about the Joint Inspection process which you have been involved in?
KM: Five child protection inspections have been completed so far and although reports on each have not yet been published, I can provide some detail on the general findings to date.
It has been encouraging to find a high level of awareness and commitment to protect children and meet their needs. Agencies are intervening effectively in crisis or high risk situations and there is an increasing emphasis on staff training. On top of this, it is clear that information sharing between services/organisations is improving and there is strengthening strategic leadership and direction. I would also add that the developing role of the child protection committees is generally positive.
However, we have found that there was a greater need to keep children and their families informed and involved in key processes. Similarly, agencies should be taking more account of the views of children and families when planning and delivering services. It is also clear that joint planning to protect children and performance monitoring could be improved. We would also like to see more inter-agency self-evaluation and agencies meeting the longer term needs of children and those assessed at being lower risk.
HN: We had some concerns about our case files being read and more specifically about how the work we are doing would be evaluated. As it turned out the process was very supportive.
We took the opportunity to make the inspectors aware of the work we are doing. For instance, we organised a small group of service users for a discussion with the inspectors and we invited the inspectors to observe a piece of work that was happening during their visit, a family group meeting. I think it is important to take full advantage of the inspection to show all the work you are doing.
What advice would you give to a voluntary sector organisation who is about to be inspected as part of the Joint Inspection process?
KM: I think it is important to re-assure staff that we are keen to learn about the work they are involved in and how it is making a difference to the lives of children, young people and their families. We want to know what is working well so that we can acknowledge that and we also want to hear about things that are not working so well, where improvements might be made. During the inspection process we genuinely want to work with all stakeholders including the private and voluntary sectors to support and improve services and provide constructive comments when identifying areas for improvement.
In my experience to date, engagement with stakeholders has been very positive and inspection teams have enjoyed a high level of support and cooperation from staff at all levels in all services and organisations. This includes the many children and families we have spoken to who have provided invaluable evidence and constructive comments to the many areas explored with them. I think this will undoubtedly assist all of those services and organisations to make continuous improvement in a very important area of service delivery.
As I mentioned earlier, with the move towards integrated inspection of wider children’s services I would suggest that those working in the voluntary sector might find it useful to refer to the document entitled “A Guide to evaluating services for children and young people using quality indicators” which is also available on the HMIE website http://www.hmie.gov.uk/
HN: Do make sure that records are up to date and easily understood. Don’t be afraid of the process. Rather see it as an opportunity to showcase your work. Be positive with service users and engage them in the process if you can.
More detailed information about Joint Inspections is available from the Scottish Government document:
Code of Practice for the Joint Inspection of Services to protect Children and Young People
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/05/16175644/0
More detailed information about the self evaluation quality indicators used which complement the Inspection process is available from HMIe:
How well are children and young people protected and their needs met – Self evaluation using quality indicators
http://www.hmie.gov.uk/documents/publication/hwcpnm.html
