Consultation outcome

Equalities impact assessment: inspections of supported accommodation for looked after children and care leavers aged 16 and 17

Updated 29 February 2024

Applies to England

Introduction

This equalities impact assessment sets out how our proposals for inspecting supported accommodation for looked after children and care leavers aged 16 and 17 will enable us to fulfil the requirements of the Equality Act 2010, including the public sector equality duty (PSED) set out in section 149 of the Equality Act 2010.

The PSED requires Ofsted, when exercising its functions, to have due regard to the need to:

• eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct that is prohibited by or under the Equality Act 2010

• advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it

• foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it

This sets out our assessment of how the proposals may affect people in terms of protected characteristics, and how they meet the 3 PSED aims. We will consider any consultation responses that raise matters related to equalities, diversity and inclusion (EDI). This may result in changes to our proposals or to this assessment.

Proposals

Inspection outcomes

For the first round of inspections, we propose that there should be 3 possible outcomes for inspections of supported accommodation:
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Consistently strong service delivery leads to typically positive experiences and progress for children. When improvements are needed, leaders and managers take timely and effective action.

The next inspection will be within approximately 3 years.

Inconsistent quality of service delivery adversely affects children’s experiences and limits their progress. Leaders and managers must make improvements.

The next inspection will be within approximately 18 months. 

Serious or widespread weaknesses lead to significant concerns about the experiences and progress of children. The service must take urgent action to address failings.

The next inspection will be within 6 months.

This proposal reflects the unique context and wide scope of the supported accommodation sector, providing a nuanced statement of quality across extremely diverse provision.

As this is a newly regulated sector that does not yet have an established benchmark for excellence, there is no outcome that identifies exceptional practice.

We will use the learning from the first round of inspections to inform longer-term inspection arrangements in the future, including how we make judgements.

Notice of inspection

We propose to give 2 working days’ notice of inspection to providers.

This is the minimum notice required to deliver effective and efficient inspections and is consistent with the notice that we give for other ‘provider-level’ social care inspection.

Main features of effective supported accommodation

Our inspections of supported accommodation will lead to one of 3 outcomes, considering evidence across the following areas:

• overall experiences and progress of children

• how well children are helped and protected

• the effectiveness of leaders and managers

To help shape the final evaluation criteria, we are seeking views on the main features of effective supported accommodation. These views, in addition to existing research and the views of the care-experienced community, will help make sure inspections focus on what makes the most difference to children living in supported accommodation.

How the proposals may affect people in terms of protected characteristics, and how they meet the 3 PSED aims

We have considered how the proposals in our consultation could have an impact on individuals or groups of people in terms of the protected characteristics. We have also considered whether they meet the 3 PSED aims.

The protected characteristics are:

• age
• disability
• gender reassignment
• pregnancy and maternity
• race
• religion or belief
• sex
• sexual orientation
• marriage and civil partnerships

Eliminating discrimination

We do not believe the proposed change will have an adverse effect on Ofsted’s ability to have due regard to eliminating unlawful discrimination during inspections.

Disadvantaged children, including many with protected characteristics, are likely to be over-represented in supported accommodation provision. Inspections will allow us to consider and report on the safeguarding and welfare of children across the extremely diverse sector, and to take appropriate specific action whenever we identify unlawful discrimination.

To effectively evaluate and report on the quality of supported accommodation provision, we need to understand a range of experiences of children in this type of accommodation. Inspectors will visit a representative sample of premises and across the relevant categories for each service (where a provider operates more than one setting) to gather the right breadth of evidence. All available intelligence (for example, information from statutory notifications and from children’s survey responses) will inform decisions about who we should speak to, and where we should visit.

Advancing equality of opportunity

We do not believe the proposed change will have a negative impact on Ofsted’s ability to have due regard to advancing equality of opportunity during inspections. Our activity will be led by what is most important for individual children at this stage in their lives.

We have developed our inspection proposals in consultation with care-experienced young people and with reference to existing research. During the consultation period we will continue seek the views of care-experienced individuals. We will carry out targeted consultation on these proposals with unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in care, who are over-represented in supported accommodation. We have published a young people’s version of the consultation in July 2023. Translated versions of the consultation document will be available on request.

We will focus on the issues that the evidence demonstrates has the greatest impact on children’s experiences and progress. Our proposals to develop the evaluation criteria explicitly address equality of opportunity and the interests of children with protected characteristics, consistent with existing social care inspection methodology.

Fostering good relations

We do not believe that our inspection proposals will adversely affect Ofsted’s ability to have due regard to fostering good relations during inspections.

Our activity will encourage providers to continue to take steps to foster good relations, for example by providing assurance that settings we inspect continue to provide an inclusive environment for all. Our inspections will evaluate providers’ adherence to the quality standards, which have a clear expectation that supported accommodation should protect children, including those with protected characteristics, from stigma and discrimination.

Monitoring and evaluation

We consider that we have given full and appropriate consideration to all elements of the PSED. The consultation process on our inspection proposals provides an opportunity for all stakeholders to raise any concerns they may have in relation to EDI. We may revise this assessment in the light of any responses we receive. If we revise it, we will republish it with our report on the outcome of the consultation.