Havering’s Children's Service Improvement Plan to address the recommendations from the most recent Ofsted inspection has been endorsed by the Council’s Cabinet.
The detailed report outlines the Council’s comprehensive plans to improve its children’s services and the steps already in place following its “Inadequate” Ofsted rating in December 2023.
The Ofsted team found that too many children and young people waited too long for the support they needed.
Inspectors judged four out of five areas of practice to be “Inadequate” with a fifth area as “requires improvement to be good”.
The Ofsted report published in February 2024 highlighted that the Council had a good understanding of their practice and had already been working on a number of improvements.
Since the publication of the report a number of further measures have been put in place to address the Ofsted recommendations.
These include:
- the appointment of a Department for Education (DfE) improvement advisor
- setting up an officer improvement board and a cross-party elected member and wider partnership oversight board
- submitting the required improvement plan to Ofsted and the DfE outlining how Havering will address and achieve the changes set out in the Ofsted report
- a workforce restructure and a recruitment and retention programme
Additional funds of just over £11m to address the significant growth, have been allocated to children’s services in 2024-2025 and the implementation of the plan is expected to cost an additional £5million.
Councillor Oscar Ford, Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, said:
“Taking quick and urgent action to turn around how we work with children has been paramount for the Council.
“The report details six recommendations and these were used to develop the focus of our improvement plan.
“The improvement plan has been developed working with numerous partners, such as the wider council workforce, councillors, headteachers, health bodies and the police.
“We also received feedback from parent carers and children and young people to help us to ensure the plan is robust and our services are made fit for purpose to improve the outcomes for local children.”