Inspectors awarded the "outstanding" rating in a report published today, detailing further improvements since the leap to "good" in 2019 and now with some areas of “exceptional support” for vulnerable children.
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Tower Hamlets' latest accolade, under the watch of children's services director Steve Reddy, comes amid a flurry of ‘outstanding’ ratings released today for children’s services spanning the country, in Kensington & Chelsea, Westminster and North Tyneside.
The two London boroughs were given the highest rating for the third consecutive time.
Tower Hamlets’ achievement places the service in the country’s top 20%, with inspectors highlighting:
- Effective and well-coordinated universal and targeted early help provision. This means that children and their families access the right help when they need it.
- High-quality direct work with families in the pre-proceedings phase of the Public Law Outline. This supports families to make positive changes, enabling children to remain safely with their families.
- Young people leaving care receive high-quality support and access a wealth of services that meet their needs.
- Children and families benefit from being supported by a committed, stable, skilled and permanent workforce and leaders have been creative and persistent in developing a culture and environment in which social workers learn and flourish.
Tower Hamlets council is particularly proud of the inspector’s praise on care leavers. A Tower Hamlets spokesperson said: “This includes the council taking proactive steps to protect those who have been in care from stigma and discrimination once they leave by making ‘care-experienced’ a protected characteristic in all council decisions.
“Ofsted cited this in their report, stating that this ‘positively influences decisions for young people’,” adding: “The report also noted that workers ‘develop their practice in a place of innovation, where everyone has a voice and contributes to the development of the service’.
Cllr Maium Talukdar, deputy mayor of Tower Hamlets and cabinet member for education, youth and lifelong learning, said the result recognises the "exceptional quality of care and support we provide to children and families, adding: “Our teams have shown incredible resilience and innovation, but this result reflects the dedication of everyone in our community who helps to build a brighter future for children in Tower Hamlets – from our foster carers to our family group experts and all of our partners who have helped us on our journey to 'outstanding'.
“This result will not make us complacent. We will continue to build on this success to deliver even greater outcomes for our young people.”
The borough says it is currently the only local authority in the country to provide universal free school meals for both primary and secondary school children saving a family £550 per year, per child; it has provided more than 2,350 grants to support young people in college and university; and has launched Young TH – a new youth service that will have a venue in every ward.
Tower Hamlets' 2017 downgrade from came 13 months after Ofsted's former national director for social care Debbie Jones took over permanently as the borough's director of children's services.
Inspectors found that children were being left in abusive situations for too long and leaders were failing to improve the quality of support for children.
In 2019 the inspectorate described as “remarkable” the two-year turnaround overseen by Jones, who moved on to a DCS role at troubled Croydon Council in October 2020.
Croydon maintained its Feb 2020 ‘good’ rating until her departure at the end of 2024.
