Inspecting children's services

We are responsible for inspecting all registered health services provided to children and work in partnership with other inspectorates.

Children Looked After and Safeguarding Reviews (CLAS)

Our review programme is evaluating the effectiveness of safeguarding arrangements and the quality of health provision to children looked after and care leavers. Find out details of the CLAS programme and view reports.

Joint inspection programmes

Joint Targeted Area Inspection Programme (JTAI)

We carry out these inspections of local authority areas in partnership with Ofsted, HM Inspectorate of Constabulary, HM Inspectorate of Probation and, where relevant, HM Inspectorate of Prisons. They look at the effectiveness of front-line safeguarding and how well the different agencies work together.

• Multi-agency response to child sexual abuse in the family environment (February 2020)
• Joint inspections of the response to child sexual abuse in the family environment (August 2018)
• Growing up neglected: a multi-agency response to older children (July 2018)

Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) inspections

This joint programme with Ofsted evaluates implementation of the reforms introduced by the Children and Families Act 2014. Inspections look at how:

• well education, social care and health services work together in partnership to identify those children and young people (aged 0 – 25) who have SEND and/or a disability
• they assess their needs
• they meet their needs.

JTAI and SEND reports

See individual JTAI and SEND inspection reports on Ofsted's website. Search by local authority name, then scroll for reports.

You can also see:

• inspection outcome letters (SEND reports published before 23 March 2017)
• A-Z list of integrated inspections of safeguarding and the care of looked-after children (joint children's services inspections with Ofsted, completed in 2012, on the National Archives)