Tower Hamlets secures improved Ofsted rating
Nina Jacobs
Monday, July 22, 2019
Children's services leaders in Tower Hamlets have been praised by Ofsted for their "relentless focus" which has seen a turnaround from "inadequate" to "good" in just two years.
The London borough's children's services department was handed Ofsted's lowest rating in April 2017 after children were found to be at risk of harm, but the latest inspection has judged the service to be good across all areas.
The 2017 downgrade 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.
The improved rating, published today (22 July), follows a monitoring visit made by the inspectorate in March which found that children at risk of immediate harm were being responded to swiftly.
An inspection subsequently carried out between 10 and 21 June found that children in need, including those in need of protection, were benefiting from "good assessments that inform plans to reduce risk and improve children's circumstances".
The judgment states: "Services for children in Tower Hamlets are now good and have substantially improved since they were found to be inadequate in 2017.
"Since then, leaders and managers have had a relentless focus to improve practice to deliver good experiences and progress for children and their families.
"At all levels, there is effective management oversight and a direct understanding of the quality of significantly improved frontline practice."
Inspectors found that highly vulnerable children at risk of exploitation, including those missing from home, school or care, received "effective, bespoke services, delivered sensitively by skilled and committed staff".
This was a significant improvement since the inspection two years ago which found too many exploited children were left unprotected, the judgment states.
It concludes "strong partnerships" are protecting these children from harm and emerging risks are identified through a multi-agency exploitation team and gangs unit.
Inspectors highlighted the service's ability to deliver effective and well-coordinated universal and early help provision.
This means children and families are receiving good help when they need it, the judgment states.
It also flags up the support for children in care and care leavers who "live in stable homes, which helps them to do their best in all aspects of their lives".
The service's workforce was also singled out, for reflecting the diversity of the local population and staff were recognised for responding appropriately to the cultural and religious needs of children and families in Tower Hamlets.
The inspection also revealed a "significant improvement" in social worker caseloads with looked-after children regularly seen by social workers who knew them well.
However, the inspectorate said the quality of plans for children in need across the family support and protection teams needed to improve to ensure they were consistently good or better.
The quality and co-ordination of plans to support children returning home from care to remain with their families should also be improved.
"Some children experience delay in the revocation of care orders, despite them asking for this to happen. The local authority knows it needs to improve integrated work between teams to that children are more effectively supported when they return home," the judgment states.
A further recommendation requires the service to improve its response and oversight of work in relation to allegations made against professionals.
The service should identify "clear priorities" that would highlight proactive engagement with agencies in raising awareness of their responsibilities to report and act on concerns, the report states.
The borough has been beset by scandal in recent years. In March 2015, former Tower Hamlets mayor Lutfur Rahman was removed from office over a breach of election rules.
The same year, schoolgirl Shamima Begum fled to Syria to join Isis, triggering concerns over safeguarding which re-emerged earlier this year after her lawyer highlighted that there had been no serious case review.
Commenting on the Ofsted judgment, mayor of Tower Hamlets John Biggs, who has been in place since June 2015, paid tribute to children's service's leaders and staff.
"When I was first elected we inherited significant problems which we were working to fix," said Biggs.
"Ofsted's inspection in 2017 highlighted just how necessary this work was and since then we have focused the council on transforming the way that we support vulnerable young people."
