Children's services chiefs have dismissed the new Ofsted single inspection framework for vulnerable children in local authority care for its‘simplistic' way of grading performance of multi-agency work.

The criticism comes following publication today of the new single inspection framework, taking effect from November, which will establish ‘good' status as the new minimum.

This framework combines scrutiny of three services - child protection, services for looked after children and care leavers and local authority fostering and adoption services.

In effect, services rated less than ‘good' will no longer be deemed adequate, but will be forced to improve and the key test will be the degree to which children's experiences are prioritised and the effectiveness of the help they receive.

But Mark Rogers, chief executive of Solihull MBC and lead on children's services for SOLACE said ‘it is hard to see how justice is done to this complexity when the performance of other agencies remains out of scope'.

‘The publication of a simplistic single grade to describe the performance of a sophisticated multi-agency system will not enhance public understanding, improvement or accountability, .' Mr Rogers added,

Andrew Webb, president of the Association of Directors of Children's Services (ADCS), said while he approved of the universal nature of the framework, he disagreed with the use of graded judgments.

‘Graded judgments can, and do, hide a multitude of strengths and weaknesses, and there is no certainty that two local authorities with the same judgments are providing the same quality of service and achieving the same outcomes for children in their area.'

He also called for Ofsted to continue with plans to develop a multi agency, multi-inspectorate framework involving local authorities, health, education, police and probations services by April 2015.

Debbie Jones, Ofsted's newly appointed national director for social care – and herself a former president of ADCS - said she understood the pressures and the changing social care landscape, but believed the new framework ‘has children and young people and the quality of professional practice at its heart'.

‘It is our ambition to establish ‘good' as the new minimum and for this to become the agreed standard for all services for children and young people,' said Ms Jones.

‘It is right to introduce the harder test asking what difference we are all making and I am impressed with the extent to which the new framework sets this out.'