How we will assess local authorities

Rather than rate all 5 key questions in our single assessment framework, we will use a subset of the quality statements.

This is to encourage improvement where needed and keep people safe.

Evidence we will use

The 6 evidence categories are:

1. People’s experience
2. Feedback from staff and leaders
3. Feedback from partners
4. Observation (we will not use this category in these assessments as it does not apply to the specific context of a local authority)
5. Processes
6. Outcomes (we will not use this category in the initial formal assessments)

Examples of the types of evidence we need to look at are in the assessment framework for local authority assurance.

The quality statements and evidence categories will not change. But the specific evidence sources we will look at will change more often, in line with the most up-to-date best practice standards, guidance and information.

For each local authority, we will gather evidence in this order:

• what we have, for example evidence from national data collections, insight from our regulation of providers
• what we need to request, for example specific policies and strategies, internal and external survey results, feedback from staff, self-assessment of performance
• what we need to actively collect, for example from case tracking, focus groups, conversations with staff and leaders; we will only actively collect information that we can’t get through other means.