Council leader hails 'good' rating for Haringey children's services

Ofsted rating achieved for first time after years of struggles and high-profile abuse cases, reports Simon Allin, Local Democracy Reporter

Haringey's children's services department and (inset) council leader Peray Ahmet — Haringey’s children’s services department and (inset) council leader Peray Ahmet

Haringey’s children’s services have been rated ‘good’ for the first time in a turnaround hailed as a “significant milestone” by the leader of the council.

Education and children’s services watchdog Ofsted said the borough had made “considerable progress in a challenging context”, with the resulting “transformation” making a “positive difference to most children’s lives”.

The borough’s children’s services have been heavily criticised in previous years following high-profile cases such as the murder of Victoria Climbie in 2000 and the death of Peter Connelly, also known as ‘Baby P’, in 2007.

In 2018 Ofsted rated the children’s services in Haringey as ‘requires improvement’ but the overall effectiveness was upgraded in a report published yesterday (Tuesday).

Based on the findings of an inspection carried out in February, the report says that since 2018 “an ambitious and stable leadership team has made considerable progress and much of the service is now transformed”.

It adds that there has been “steady improvement in the quality and impact of social work practice for children in need of help and protection and sustained good support for care leavers” and that “services in these areas are now good, with some examples of excellent child and family-centred practice”.

Ofsted commends multi-agency partnership work as being “effective in identifying children at risk of abuse or neglect and providing the right support at the right time” with children at risk of extra-familial harm benefiting from “bespoke, timely and targeted support to protect them and to disrupt exploitation”.

However, the watchdog adds that there is “more to do to achieve the same level of progress in developing services for children in care”, which it rated as ‘requires improvement’.

Although some children in care are “supported well”, the report says others have experienced “significant delay in achieving permanence” and “too many social workers”, with the lack of stability affecting some children’s progress.

It adds that leaders are “fully aware” of what needs to improve for their children in care and are “focusing on accelerating improvement”.

In a joint statement, council leader Peray Ahmet and chief executive Andy Donald described the Ofsted rating as “a watershed moment for Haringey”.

They added: “This judgement is testament to the hard work and professionalism shown by our dedicated staff and the positive impact they have on the lives of children and young people. It is a turnaround that we are all rightly proud of and shows we are moving in the right direction.

“We, along with our partners, will continue to set ourselves high standards moving forward and the journey towards excellence will continue. This is a platform on which we will build, not the final destination.

“The report highlighted a need for us to have a stronger focus on children in care to ensure we can support them to achieve the best possible outcomes. We are fully committed to doing this and will be implementing a programme of further service improvements in order to achieve this.

“We recognise this is a significant milestone, but we are not complacent, and work will go on at pace to ensure we provide excellent services to benefit our most vulnerable children and young people.”

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