The Audit Commission worked closely with Ofsted, the Care Quality Commission, HMI Probation and other inspectorates for many years to help councils and schools improve services and outcomes for children and young people. As well as our assessments and inspections, we produced various tools and reports about services and outcomes for children and young people.
Tools and resources
The following tools and resource packs were designed to help councils and schools improve the economy, efficiency and effectiveness of their work with children and young people.
The tools included information about government policies, strategies and guidance, other information and data and links to websites that were relevant at the time of publication. While we no longer maintain or update these tools, councils and schools may still find them helpful in strategic and operational planning.
Services for young people: Value for money (VFM) self-assessment pack
April 2011
Produced in collaboration with the Confederation of Heads of Young People’s Services (CHYPS), this was designed to help councils and partner organisations make sure money spent on services for young people (youth services) was well-used and had the right impact. We will work with CHYPS to keep the pack up to date until autumn 2012.
Improving Children's Trusts resource pack
2010
This was a voluntary, online self-evaluation tool to help children's trust boards improve governance and value for money. It helped children's partnerships identify where more work was needed and develop an action plan.
Strategic management of school places tool
Updated May 2010
This was a diagnostic that supported local authorities in their planning for falling school rolls. It enabled councils to compare their position on current and projected surplus places in primary and secondary schools with other councils. The tool included data up to 2009. Later data is available from the Department for Education, School Capacity 2009-10 (external link). (2010/11 data is due to be published in mid November 2011).
Value for money (VFM) in special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and additional educational needs (AEN) for Children's Trusts
April 2010
This resource pack included a self-assessment to help children's trusts identify how to improve value for money in the services they provided. It included practice examples drawn from fieldwork and from other published sources.
Education of looked after children toolkit
Updated March 2010
This toolkit supported councils to improve the educational outcomes of looked-after children. The downloadable self-assessment resource had seven areas of investigation.
School survey
Last published for 2009
The school survey was a collaborative tool developed by the Audit Commission in partnership with Ofsted, Estyn, the Wales Audit Office, councils, and headteacher and governor associations. Its primary purpose was to act as a source of evidence about schools' perceptions of the support they received from their council and the services provided locally for children and young people. The last school survey was carried out by the Audit Commission in 2009. Data for 2009 and earlier years is available.
Managing school resources
July 2009
This online self-assessment tool provided a structured way for schools to identify ways of improving value for money and signposted useful value for money resources. A more detailed tool, Workforce planning tool for secondary schools (Excel, 543kb) was also provided for secondary schools, to help schools break down expenditure by subject and compare expenditure with outcomes. This supported assessments of the efficiency of workforce deployment.
School balances tool
March 2009
This tool provided information on school balances in the three years up to 31 March 2009. More recent data on school balances is published by the Department for Education, School balances 2009/10 (external link).
Special educational needs (SEN) and additional educational needs (AEN) value for money in schools
January 2008
This pack, designed with the National Strategies, offered a seven-stage model for considering special additional needs and additional educational needs value for money. It covered budgets and spending, assessment, provision and evaluation. The self-review format prompted schools to gather relevant management information and build a picture of their current practice. Schools could then use it to create an action plan based on their responses.
In the past, the Audit Commission published a series of national reports on children and young people. Our reports were based on independent, authoritative analysis of national evidence and local practice and helped to improve the economy, efficiency and effectiveness of local public services.
We also produced a briefing on children and young people. This briefing captured key messages from the Commission's former research in this area, and provides links to relevant national publications, case studies and tools.