PERFORMANCE OF LOCAL AUHORITY CONFERENCE

[Alison J Stevens]

Dear Colleague,

The Comprehensive Area Assessment was heralded as an ambitious, new approach to
assessing performance in local authorities, with the focus being on outcomes,
assessing prospects for improvement, and reducing the overall burden of
inspection. Feedback so far, however, indicates that there is still a long way
to go.*

Is the CAA really reducing the overall burden of inspection? Is the new approach
being effectively coordinated between inspectorates? And is the CAA sufficiently
focused on future outcomes?

Nearly a year after its launch, the impact of the Comprehensive Area Assessment
on children's services is still unclear. Following the release of the first set
of national results, Children & Young People Now invite you to join them for an
honest assessment of the CAA at the CLARIFY THE MECHANICS OF INSPECTION FOR
CHILDREN'S SERVICES conference on 28 January, at The Ibis, Earls Court, London.
See http://ecm.hbpl.co.uk/re?l=ew3aw2I45uunf0I0 for details.

** 3 WEEKS TO GO, BOOK NOW @ http://ecm.hbpl.co.uk/re?l=ew3aw2I45uunf0I1 **

Take this opportunity to benchmark your services against your peers and learn
from a year of inspection experiences:

1. OFSTED INSIGHT: receive guidance on how the unannounced and three year
inspections of children's services fit into the overall organisational and area
assessments of the CAA

2. LOCAL AUTHORITY PRACTICAL EXPERIENCES: how did they fare under the
inspections and how did they find working with the inspectorates?

3. POLICY UPDATE: pinpoint what improvements local authorities still need to
make to achieve better assessments in the coming years, and understand how the
inspection framework may develop

4. UNANNOUNCED INSPECTION: understand the processes of the unannounced
inspection and understand how it affects the overall evaluation of a council or
partnership


5. 10 DAY INSPECTIONS: clarify Ofsted's inspections of children's services
during the 10-day inspection to ensure you fully understand their priorities and
the inspection process

For full details of the conference programme and speaker line-up, please visit
http://ecm.hbpl.co.uk/re?l=ew3aw2I45uunf0I2

PLUS: In-depth question and answer session with Ofsted and opportunities for
debate and discussion with your peers, led by the chair for the day John
Coughlan CBE, Director of Children's Services and Deputy Chief Executive,
Hampshire County Council.

For more details, or to register online, visit http://ecm.hbpl.co.uk/re?l=ew3aw2
I45uunf0I3

Ensure complete clarity around the inspection of your services and attend this
year's definitive event on the CAA.

I look forward to meeting you in a few weeks.

Best wishes,

Gaby Disandolo
Conference Producer
Children & Young People Now
[phone]