The Emergence Of Multi-Inspectorate Inspections: 'Going It Alone Is Not An Option'

Drawing on data from HM Inspectorate of Prisons, HM Inspectorate of Probation, the Office for Standards in Education and the Social Services Inspectorate, this paper develops a typology of inspection, classified according to the focus of inspection. Five basic inspection types emerge, namely single institutional, multi-service, the-matic, survey and monitoring review. The typology is further categorized by a range of characteristics, resulting in a series of variants. The paper then focuses on the particular characteristic of the multi-inspectorate approach to inspection, because this is seen to offer a significant development in inspection practice that is set to expand and develop in the future. By examining operational examples of this approach it becomes clear that inspectorates are affecting the working practices of one another as they use the multi-inspectorate approach as an exercise in bench-marking.