Ofsted finds Haringey has made limited improvement

An Ofsted inspection found that although the London borough's social care department had made good progress in clearing a backlog of cases and in dealing with underperforming staff, it had made limited progress in tracking cases and in its capacity to make further improvement.

Writing to Children's Secretary Ed Balls, Ofsted chief inspector Christine Gilbert said not enough time had elapsed to allow real change to be seen. She said: "Haringey must ensure it develops a sharper and more relentless approach to driving up the standards of frontline services."

Balls, writing to Claire Koher, leader of Haringey Council, said the borough must "prioritise improving standards of frontline practice and supervision".

Graham Badman, independent chair of Haringey's local safeguarding children board, said: "This report marks the first stage in the transformation of Haringey services. It presents some real challenges to the council and its partner agencies but recognises that against the background of a very low base, poor staff morale and many staff vacancies, that improvements have been made in a relatively short time."

Another inspection will take place in January 2010.