Haringey children’s services making progress but requires improvement

Haringey Council’s children’s services department is making progress but still “requires improvement” according to a new inspection report from Ofsted.

Giving an overall rating of “requires improvement”, the government inspectorate said: “There are no widespread or serious failures that create or leave children being harmed or at risk of harm.

“The welfare of looked after children is safeguarded and promoted. However, the authority is not yet delivering good protection and help and care for children, young people and families.

“It is Ofsted’s expectation that, as a minimum, all children and young people receive good help, care and protection.

“Haringey does not yet have a comprehensive and co-ordinated early help offer that meets the needs of children, young people and their families. The number of families receiving early help via the common assessment framework has remained low for the last three years.”

While noting that Haringey’s children’s social care team had “significantly improved the number of initial child protection conferences held within 15 working days of the decision to undertake a child protection investigation”, Ofsted said that some children are still not “receiving coordinated help and support via a child protection plan as quickly as they should”.

And it noted that some youngsters referred to children’s social care services following concerns of chronic neglect “may not always receive timely or thorough assessments”. As a result, this leads to delays in dealing with their needs.

The report also raised concerns about training and support for foster carers, said there is “insufficient understanding of the impact of risky behaviour in assessments and plans for older looked-after children”, and noted that the average 39 weeks taken to place children with an adoptive family is much higher than the recommended 26 weeks.

It added that “some care leavers are not aware of their entitlements to financial support, or how to access the leaving care grant”, and noted that the proportion of care leavers in education, training or work had fallen from 63 per cent in March 2013 to 47 per cent a year later.

However, the report also highlighted area which were working well, with inspectors impressed by the quality of assessments and casework at Haringey, and the commitment of the council’s frontline staff, who they described as “motivated and positive about working in Haringey”.

Ann Waters, Haringey’s cabinet Member for Children, said: “We’re pleased that the inspectors highlighted a number of examples of good practice at Haringey, and that their report recognises many of the improvements already made in our children’s services.

“In particular we welcome the inspectors’ findings that we are making progress in our delivery of children’s services and are clear about our priorities, that most of our casework is of good quality, and that the voice of the child clearly runs through most of our work.

“I’m grateful to all of the staff in children’s services who have worked so hard to deliver improvements that will make a real difference to the lives of children in Haringey.

“I know that their hard work will continue as we make further improvements.”