Agenda item

Verbal update.

The Panel received an update from the Cabinet Member for Children, Schools and Families on developments within her portfolio, which was followed by questions from the Panel. As part of this item, the Panel received a tabled set of slides which provided an update on the outcome of a recent Ofsted inspection of local authority children’s services (ILACS) which took place between 12-16^th January. The slides were introduced by Cllr Brabazon, Cabinet Member for Children, Families and Schools and are published on the website as part of the agenda papers for this meeting. Ann Graham, Corporate Director of Children’s Services was also present for this item.

·       The Panel was advised that Children’s Services had achieved an Outstanding rating from Ofsted for the first time. The authority had gone from a 2017 Joint Targeted Area Inspection which had resulted in the award of a ‘Requires Improvement’ rating, through the 2023 rating of ‘Good’ to achieving an Outstanding rating in January.

·       During the inspection in January, Ofsted reviewed the experiences of children and young people across Children’s Services. The Ofsted inspectors commented on several areas of excellence, including: 

§  Skilled and dedicated social workers who benefited from strong training and support, helping them stay focused on the lived experiences of children. 

§  Effective early help services that ensured families could access the right support quickly.

§  Outstanding support for care leavers from highly experienced and committed practitioners.

§  Robust safeguarding arrangements, including a highly effective multi?agency safeguarding hub (MASH).

§  Strong strategic leadership that drove consistently good or outstanding practice across services, supported by political leaders who prioritised children’s social care despite financial pressures.

·       The Cabinet Member commended the dedication and hard work of staff across Children’s Services and highlighted the consistent and outstanding leadership of the Corporate Director and her team.

·       Officers advised the Panel that the framework was changing and that from 1^st April 2026, authorities would no longer receive a single word judgement, instead there would be five criteria. Haringey would retain it’s one word judgement until another full inspection was carried out. It was suggested that this would likely be in three to four years.

·       The inspection raised one area for improvement around the assessments carried out by the disabled children’s team; ‘management oversight was not always clearly recorded, and for a small number of children, safety planning and partner communication is not always sufficiently timely when significant harm is suspected’.

·       Officers set out that the Youth Justice Service had a good with outstanding award, the SEND service had been awarded outstanding and now Children’s Services had been awarded an outstanding rating.

The following arose as part of the discussion of this item:

a.    Panel members paid tribute to officers across the service and to the Cabinet Member for achieving an award of outstanding. The Panel commented on the quality of leadership shown by senior managers.

b.    The Panel highlighted the inspection outcome’s emphasis on Haringey’s organisational culture within Children’s Services and the skills of the staff that work there.

c.    In response to a question around what some of the key factors were from the Corporate Director’s perspective, the Panel was advised that a key part of this was around having the support of the Council’s political leadership, as well as corporate support from across the Council.  The Corporate Director highlighted the financial challenges facing the service when she joined the organisation and the strong financial support she received corporately in terms of funding the service.

d.    Officers acknowledged that they didn’t get it right every time and that there were children who the service hadn’t gotten it right for. Officers highlighted another example of the corporate support they received around the provision of housing units for care leavers and the fact that when they wanted more they received them.

e.    Officers highlighted the fact that the service worked well and the fact that the staff were trusted to carry out their roles. Similarly, it was felt that the leaders of the service were trusted by corporate leadership. Officer commented on the fact that there was a high accountability culture within the service and that staff were also encouraged to come forward with ideas.

f.      The Cabinet Member emphasised the need for to have strong systems in place, strong leadership, but also the need for imagination and the need to be creative.

g.    On behalf of the Members who were unable to be at the meeting, as well as herself, the Chair passed on her thanks and appreciation to everyone in the service for their hard work.

RESOLVED

Noted.