Behind the Inspection Rating: Staff investment reaps rewards

A stable workforce with high morale: it sounds too good to be true given the challenges so many social work departments have experienced in recruiting and retaining staff. But that is the judgment of Ofsted in its latest review of safeguarding services at Tower Hamlets.

So what is the secret of its success? Isobel Cattermole, the corporate director for children, schools and families at the east London borough, says it is down to investment in staff. “A couple of years ago we looked at what the pay rates were in London and how we stacked up in terms of comparators, pay scales and staff development opportunities,” she says. “The council provided £800,000 to make sure that our pay scales were in the top quartile of London boroughs.”

But extra funds for salaries was just the start. “We then introduced a progression scheme that sets out how social workers progress in Tower Hamlets and what support is around that,” adds Cattermole. “We created a role of senior social worker to enable the most experienced to continue to progress, but not move out of front-door practice into management roles so we didn’t lose that experience.”

Flexible working
To cap this off, the borough also introduced flexible working. “It is not without its difficulties but it is getting easier all the time,” says Cattermole. “Some of the social workers tried it for the first time because of the Olympics and got into it very easily.”

Another success highlighted by Ofsted is how the authority has reduced the number of looked-after children by 25 per cent in two years thanks to its “highly effective” early interventions. “We’ve got a significant focus on children who are on the cusp of care,” says Cattermole. “The intervention for those families and children is so important because they may just be on that borderline and we can give them a package of support that keeps children with their family, if that is the right place for them ?to be.”

The single assessment approach that Tower Hamlets trialled for Professor Eileen Munro’s review of child protection is an important factor in making sure the borough gets families the help they need at the right time, says Cattermole. “It means we are taking our time, talking to the family and the children more, and are making those judgments in the context of the journey for that child,” she says. “At the end of the process we’ve given the assessment enough time to ensure we can do all we can without having to intervene in a much more heavy-handed way.”

But while these approaches have helped the borough land a “good” rating from Ofsted, Cattermole says the ever-changing nature of social work and the importance of safeguarding mean there is little time for resting on laurels.

“Although we have done very well in this Ofsted inspection, the new inspection regime will be very challenging for everybody and it’s right that it is. We’ve got to always be challenging ourselves and asking ‘have we got it right for those children and families, are we making the right decisions and are we doing it in a timely fashion?’”

Fact File

Name: London Borough of Tower Hamlets
Location: Tower Hamlets, east London
Description: The population of Tower Hamlets is highly diverse with 89 per cent of school pupils belonging to an ethnic group other than White British compared to an average of 26 per cent in England. In June 2012 there were 298 looked-after children in the borough and 305 children who were subject to child protection plans.
Number of children: 60,000 children and young people aged from birth to 18 live in the borough, accounting for 24 per cent of the borough’s population.
Ofsted inspection unique reference number: n/a

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