Unannounced inspections introduced for Cafcass

Ofsted has introduced no-notice inspections for the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), the chief inspector of the watchdog has confirmed.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with CYP Now, Christine Gilbert said that unannounced inspections of Cafcass would be more cost-effective and efficient.

The news comes after Professor Eileen Munro’s report into child protection recommended that all Ofsted inspections of local authority children’s services should also be unannounced.

“The ideal for us is that we start from the premise that all inspection should be unannounced and then look at the reasons why it might not be,” Gilbert explained.

“For example, with childminders, we do try and make inspections unannounced, but actually, if the inspector tries and knocks on the door and the childminder is not there that day then it’s very difficult, so there are various ways that we try and address that.

“With Cafcass, we looked at how much the National Audit Office said their costs were in terms of preparing for Ofsted inspections. The costs were incredible and unnecessary, so we’re also doing unannounced inspections there.”

Councils have been undergoing no-notice checks for safeguarding since 2009. Children’s homes inspections are also set to become unannounced.