Ofsted plans five-point grades and a new carer-support judgement for fostering agencies

Ofsted's consultation on the biggest changes to children's social care inspection in several years closed on 28 September 2026. The proposals cover independent fostering agencies inspected under the social care common inspection framework (SCCIF) as well as council children's services, and Ofsted says it will publish its response in early 2027.

The central change is a move from the current four-point scale to five grades: exceptional, strong standard, expected standard, needs attention and urgent improvement. The overall judgement on children's experiences and progress would be dropped, with each evaluation area graded separately and reports published as online report cards with a colour-coded grid and an ungraded summary. Ofsted says the new grades would not be directly comparable with current ones.

For fostering agencies specifically, Ofsted proposes an additional evaluation area on the quality of foster carer recruitment, assessment and support, alongside a new area on children's enduring relationships that would apply to all settings. The three existing graded areas would remain. A needs attention grade in any area would bring the next inspection forward, and urgent improvement would be treated much as inadequate is today.

How often agencies are inspected is set by Department for Education regulations rather than by Ofsted, and dropping the overall judgement would require those regulations to change. Ofsted says SCCIF changes would be phased in between spring 2027 and spring 2028, with timing dependent on the DfE's wider reforms, including the new fostering standards awaiting a decision.

What this means for you: if adopted, your agency or council fostering service would be judged for the first time on how well it recruits, assesses and supports carers, and inspection reports would look very different. Carers may be asked for their views through the surveys Ofsted has introduced under SCCIF. Council children's services would move to a standard inspection every four years, with focused and monitoring visits in between.