IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/cysrev/v129y2021ics0190740921002644.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Exploring the impact of Ofsted inspections on performance in children’s social care

Author

Listed:
  • Hood, Rick
  • Goldacre, Allie

Abstract

Children’s social care services in England are inspected by a government agency, Ofsted. This paper reports on the impact of Ofsted inspections on rates of intervention and other performance measures, such as expenditure and workforce, drawing on a quantitative analysis of national datasets. Annual published returns from 150 English local authorities from 2009 to 19 were combined with results from Ofsted inspections under the Single Inspection Framework (2014–17), which covered all local authorities. Interrupted time series (ITS) analysis was undertaken to find out whether an inspection had a significant effect on performance in the context of trends pre- and post-inspection, and whether this effect varied according to the type of judgement. The results showed discontinuities in a range of indicators in the year of an inspection and the year afterwards. An increase in rates of child protection interventions occurred at the time of an inspection, which was most pronounced in local authorities receiving an inadequate judgement. An inadequate judgement led to a steep rise in spending and use of agency workers compared to other local authorities. The findings suggest that a short-term spike in intervention rates is an unintended consequence of inspections, which is sustained only in local authorities judged to be performing badly. Implications are discussed for performance in the sector and the purpose of inspection.

Suggested Citation

  • Hood, Rick & Goldacre, Allie, 2021. "Exploring the impact of Ofsted inspections on performance in children’s social care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:129:y:2021:i:c:s0190740921002644
    DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2021.106188
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740921002644
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.childyouth.2021.106188?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hood, Rick & Grant, Robert & Jones, Ray & Goldacre, Allie, 2016. "A study of performance indicators and Ofsted ratings in English child protection services," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 50-56.
    2. Gilbert, Neil, 2012. "A comparative study of child welfare systems: Abstract orientations and concrete results," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 532-536.
    3. Barrie M. Craven & James N. Tooley, 2016. "Safeguarding Children: Ofsted and Regulatory Failure," Economic Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(1), pages 64-79, February.
    4. Calum J. R. Webb & Paul Bywaters, 2018. "Austerity, rationing and inequity: trends in children’s and young peoples’ services expenditure in England between 2010 and 2015," Local Government Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(3), pages 391-415, May.
    5. Black, Julia & Baldwin, Robert, 2010. "Really responsive risk-based regulation," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 27632, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    6. Lars Ljungqvist & Harald Uhlig, 2015. "Comment on the Campbell-Cochrane Habit Model," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 123(5), pages 1201-1213.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bach-Mortensen, Anders Malthe & Goodair, Benjamin & Barlow, Jane, 2022. "Outsourcing and children's social care: A longitudinal analysis of inspection outcomes among English children's homes and local authorities," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 313(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nigel Ashmore Parton, 2022. "Comparative Research and Critical Child Protection Studies," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-15, April.
    2. Bilson, Andy & Munro, Elizabeth Hunter, 2019. "Adoption and child protection trends for children aged under five in England: Increasing investigations and hidden separation of children from their parents," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 204-211.
    3. Bach-Mortensen, Anders Malthe & Goodair, Benjamin & Barlow, Jane, 2022. "Outsourcing and children's social care: A longitudinal analysis of inspection outcomes among English children's homes and local authorities," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 313(C).
    4. Bywaters, Paul & Brady, Geraldine & Sparks, Tim & Bos, Elizabeth & Bunting, Lisa & Daniel, Brigid & Featherstone, Brid & Morris, Kate & Scourfield, Jonathan, 2015. "Exploring inequities in child welfare and child protection services: Explaining the ‘inverse intervention law’," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 98-105.
    5. Garcia Quiroga, Manuela & Hamilton-Giachritsis, Catherine, 2014. "“In the name of the children”: Public policies for children in out-of-home care in Chile. Historical review, present situation and future challenges," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 422-430.
    6. Julia Black & Robert Baldwin, 2012. "When risk‐based regulation aims low: Approaches and challenges," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 6(1), pages 2-22, March.
    7. Bennett, Davara L. & Webb, Calum J.R. & Mason, Kate E. & Schlüter, Daniela K. & Fahy, Katie & Alexiou, Alexandros & Wickham, Sophie & Barr, Ben & Taylor-Robinson, David, 2021. "Funding for preventative Children’s Services and rates of children becoming looked after: A natural experiment using longitudinal area-level data in England," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    8. Hidalgo, Victoria & Jiménez, Lucía & Grimaldi, Víctor & Ayala-Nunes, Lara & López-Verdugo, Isabel, 2018. "The effectiveness of a child day-care program in child welfare services," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 145-151.
    9. Venables, Jemma & Healy, Karen & Harrison, Gai, 2015. "From investigation to collaboration: Practitioner perspectives on the transition phase of parental agreements," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 9-16.
    10. Davies, Kate & Ross, Nicola & Cocks, Jessica & Foote, Wendy, 2023. "Family inclusion in child protection: Knowledge, power and resistance," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    11. Ulbricht, Lena & von Grafenstein, Maximilian, 2016. "Editorial – Big data through the power lens: Marker for regulating innovation," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 5(1), pages 1-8.
    12. Lucia Pellegrina & Giorgio Maio & Donato Masciandaro & Margherita Saraceno, 2023. "Are Bankers “Crying Wolf”? Type I, Type II Errors and Deterrence in Anti-Money Laundering: The Italian Case," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 9(2), pages 587-615, July.
    13. George M. Constantinides, 2017. "Asset Pricing: Models and Empirical Evidence," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 125(6), pages 1782-1790.
    14. Riaz, Zahid & Ray, Pradeep & Ray, Sangeeta, 2022. "The impact of digitalisation on corporate governance in Australia," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 410-424.
    15. Lars Ljungqvist & Thomas Sargent, 2021. "The fundamental surplus strikes again," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 41, pages 38-51, July.
    16. Bywaters, Paul & Scourfield, Jonathan & Webb, Calum & Morris, Kate & Featherstone, Brid & Brady, Geraldine & Jones, Chantel & Sparks, Tim, 2019. "Paradoxical evidence on ethnic inequities in child welfare: Towards a research agenda," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 145-154.
    17. Lisbeth Loft, 2022. "The importance of child characteristics: children’s health and mothers’ subsequent childbearing," Journal of Population Research, Springer, vol. 39(4), pages 599-616, December.
    18. Portmann, Rahel & Mitrovic, Tanja & Gonthier, Hakim & Kosirnik, Céline & Knüsel, René & Jud, Andreas, 2022. "Do socio-structural factors influence the incidence and reporting of child neglect? An analysis of multi-sectoral national data from Switzerland," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    19. Patrick Kehoe & Elena Pastorino & Pierlauro Lopez & Virgiliu Midrigan, 2018. "Asset Prices and Unemployment Fluctuations," 2018 Meeting Papers 1119, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    20. Thomas Akintayo, 2021. "Options for Africa’s Child Welfare Systems from Nigeria’s Unsustainable Multicultural Models," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-19, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:129:y:2021:i:c:s0190740921002644. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/childyouth .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.