Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the reasons were for ceasing Ofsted inspections of children's social care services provided by outsourced bodies.

Local authorities are responsible for ensuring the quality of all their children’s social care functions, and remain accountable for the quality of all such provision should they choose to delegate such functions to a third party provider. Ofsted inspect all local authority provision, including any providers to which functions are delegated. Under the Deregulation Act 2015, however, providers of children’s social care services no longer have to register with Ofsted before functions may be delegated. This removes duplication, while in no way lessening the protections in the system. It removes a duty from Ofsted, removes a burden from social work providers and reduces cost.