article_snippet: Yesterday a Parliamentary committee probing Ofsted’s work there called for urgent inspections of every council in the country with responsibility for child protection – to ensure large-scale abuse isn’t being ignored elsewhere.
article_snippet: Clive Betts, chairman of the Communities and Local Government committeethe Communities and Local Government committee, said Ofsted’s
article_snippet: The Labour MP added: ‘The perpetrators bear ultimate responsibility for the sexual exploitation of children in Rotherham but the ineffectiveness of Ofsted’s inspections contributed to a failure to expose the extent of the problem.
article_snippet: the Communities and Local Government committee said little evidence of radicalisation had been found and ‘confidence in Ofsted has been undermined, and efforts should be made by the inspectorate to restore the inspectorate’.
article_snippet: Meanwhile, the Rotherham report pointed to Ofsted inspectors repeatedly labelling child protection in the town as ‘adequate’
article_snippet: Instead, Ofsted inspectors repeatedly labelling child protection in the town as ‘adequate’ simply accepted what they were told by local officials, and didn’t ask searching questions.
article_snippet: ‘Ofsted does not appear to have probed beyond what it was told, and it failed to penetrate the professional jealousy and incompetence that distorted the operation of children’s social care in Rotherham,’ stated the Rotherham report.
article_snippet: the Rotherham report also described Ofsted’s habit of calling the efforts of councils like Rotherham adequate as ‘ambiguous’.
article_snippet: While Ofsted thought ‘adequate’ meant that improvement was needed, outsiders, including councillors, thought Ofsted thought meant ‘satisfactory’.
article_snippet: The MPs added that Ofsted was operating in a way that meant Rotherham different inspectors and departments did not discuss The MPs findings with each other – and inspections of councils like Rotherham were ‘too short and narrowly focused’.
article_snippet: And The MPs were ‘uneasy’ about the way in which Ofsted polices the town as the town
article_snippet: Last night an Ofsted spokesman said: ‘We welcome the report and the committee’s recognition that the changes We have made since 2012 strengthen We ability to uncover where children are at risk.