The Scottish Government

Title

Child Protection Inspection findings.

National Indicator/Target

Increase the overall proportion of Local Authority areas receiving positive inspection reports.

Brief Description

The indicator provides information on the proportion of Local Authority areas that received positive evaluations in all of a reference subset of the quality indicators used in the joint inspections of child protection services, co-ordinated by HM Inspectorate of Education ( HMIE). The measure provides a proxy for the ability of local children's services delivery partners to collaborate successfully in order to meet the needs of vulnerable children and young people more broadly.

Strategic Objective(s) to Which Indicator Relates

The indicator informs progress in relation to the Smarter and the Safer and Stronger Strategic Objectives as it shows the extent to which improvement is evident in the level of success being achieved by relevant agencies in keeping vulnerable young people safe, thereby allowing them to prosper in terms of their education and their broader development.

More Detailed Definitions

Definitions of Keywords

The reference subset of Quality Indicators ( QI) is:-

1.1 Children are listened to, understood and respected;
1.2 Children benefit from strategies to minimise harm;
1.3 Children are helped by the actions taken in response to immediate concerns;
1.4 Children's needs are met;

as published in How well are children and young people protected and their needs met? Part 2 The Quality Indicators

On the HMIE website

( http://www.hmie.gov.uk/services/default.asp).

Child Protection Inspection findings are based on Local Authority areas for children's services partners within these areas.

The definition of positive inspection reports is the percentage of Local Authority areas receiving satisfactory or better, good or better or very good or better in all of the reference subset of quality indicators. With effect from inspections commencing in April 2008, HMIE will report using the term "satisfactory" instead of the previous "adequate", but with the same definition.

Evidence Source

Quality Indicator ( QI) evaluations from Child Protection Inspections carried out by HM Inspectorate of Education. The QIs are the reference subset of QIs mentioned above. The unit of measurement is the percentage of Local Authority areas where results have been published receiving positive inspection reports. It is a proxy measure for the ability of local children's services delivery partners to collaborate successfully in order to meet the needs of vulnerable children and young people more broadly.

Baseline and Past Trends

The baseline will be available once one full cycle of Local Authority area inspection reports are published by the end of August 2009. Of the fifteen Local Authority areas' inspection reports published by May 2008, 80% received satisfactory or better, 40% received good or better and 7% received very good or better in all the reference subset of quality indicators.

Methodology

Data Ownership and Quality Assurance

The evidence source is not National Statistics as the evaluations are published at the end of the inspection of an area and are therefore already in the public domain. The results are the professional evaluations of HMIE and other professionals.

Publication of Data

The data is published in each Child Protection Inspection report on the HMIE website: www.hmie.gov.uk after each inspection is complete. An annual conference is held to share the results and also to share good practice amongst local children's services delivery partners.