Setting

Tara Geere Director of Starting Well Havering Town Hall Main Road Romford RM1 3BB

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Monitoring visit to Havering children’s services.

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This letter summarises the findings of the monitoring visit to Havering children’s services on 16 and 17 September 2025. This was the third monitoring visit since services were judged inadequate in December 2023. His Majesty’s Inspectors for this visit were Naintara Khosla and Zafer Yilkan.

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Areas covered by the visit

Inspectors reviewed the progress made in the following areas of concern identified at the last inspection:

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Areas covered by the visit

◼ Help and protection for children in need or subject to a protection plan, including disabled children.

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Areas covered by the visit

◼ The quality and impact of multi-agency information-sharing and practice to protect children where domestic violence is a concern.

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Areas covered by the visit

◼ The effectiveness of the pre-proceedings stage of the Public Law Outline in planning for and protecting children.

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Areas covered by the visit

This visit was carried out in line with the inspection of local authority children’s services (ILACS) framework.

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Headline findings

Since the last monitoring visit in March 2025, there have been tangible improvements to the services provided to children and families in Havering. Steadfast corporate and political support and financial investment are helping leaders to provide an environment for social work to flourish. While there remains more to do, children and families are beginning to benefit from improving social work practice. Ofsted

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Headline findings

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T 0300 123 1231 Textphone 0161 618 8524 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.gov.uk/ofsted The permanent senior leadership team is steadily taking steps to deliver improvement for children in need of help and protection. Better capacity and more reasonable caseloads are enabling social workers to respond more effectively to children’s needs. Social work visits and meetings with children and families are held with increased timeliness and regularity. Most social workers receive consistent supervision, and management oversight is evident on children’s records. Better account is taken of children’s cultural and diversity needs.

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Headline findings

Leaders understand service strengths and weaknesses. They accept that while they are putting the foundations in place to secure better intervention, there remain challenges. They are focused, for example, on embedding stronger practice in response to children who make allegations of sexual abuse, strengthening risk assessment and planning for unborn children and improving the pace of change in the lived experiences of children who are subject to child-in-need and child protection plans. While social workers speak positively about supportive managers, the quality of supervision is not consistently providing social workers with the knowledge and direction to respond to some children’s needs.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

Social workers are knowledgeable about their children, what they like and how they are doing at home and in school. They sensitively build relationships with children and take careful account of their culture, religion, individual communication needs and disabilities. Most children with complex medical needs and disabilities are well supported. When children’s needs are changing or they require greater short-break support, social workers respond and advocate for their children. The authority has commissioned a service for young carers, but this is not consistently being used for the brothers and sisters of all disabled children.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

Social workers are thoughtful about where they visit children, and they see them in different places, for example at home and at school. However, some children, including some disabled children, are not being seen alone often enough. Case records are written sensitively to children. For some children, creative direct work has a very positive impact, helping to create change in their home circumstances.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

Social workers are becoming more confident and effective in exercising their professional judgement and responding to children’s assessed needs and risks. Visits take place more regularly and when necessary. Social workers are child focused when they visit children. However, for some children, these visits are not regular enough to build relationships to make sustained changes to their lives.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

For most children, child-centred social work assessments inform effective child-in- need plans and involve relevant professionals from partner agencies. For some children, these plans are progressed very positively, and families receive sensitive, thoughtful intervention at the right time. Some families do very well with an offer of resources that support parents, such as the in-house family therapy service, and group work with men and masculinity programme. There remain some children who live in circumstances that do not improve quickly enough, because help is not always provided at the right level to mitigate risks and alleviate difficult home circumstances, or responses are not provided in a way that helps families to sustain changes over time.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

Social workers understand contextual risks for children, including geographical considerations, peer associations and housing needs. Multi-agency safety plans help professionals to reduce risks to children and families, for example through arranging alternative accommodation that helps to reduce the threat of gang affiliations.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

Social workers are sensitive to the experiences of children and families who are victims of domestic abuse. Local multi-agency risk assessment conference (MARAC) meetings are typically attended by an appropriate range of professionals from the relevant agencies. MARAC information is shared across the partnership. Highly motivated social care practitioners assist the flow of information so that risks are understood and integrated into child protection and child-in-need plans. As a result, action is taken to reduce risk. Workers use toolkits and research to inform decision- making and ensure that support is in place for victims. Practice with adult victims is culturally sensitive, and they can access support from within their own communities, providing trusted relationships. Interpreters help parents to understand their rights and entitlements. Immigration vulnerabilities are considered, and victims are

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Findings and evaluation of progress

supported effectively while their immigration status is considered by the appropriate agency. Social workers understand poverty. They assist with charity applications and food vouchers to help families manage their financial pressures.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

Social workers respond to escalating domestic abuse risks and convene child protection strategy meetings. However, some strategy meetings are delayed due to police availability. Although the director of children’s services raised this matter with the Safeguarding Children’s Partnership some time ago, some child protection strategy meetings are delayed due to police availability. This was also a concern during the inspection in 2023. Adult victims and perpetrators have access to resources to help understand domestic abuse and address professionals’ concerns. Children are not always considered as victims in their own right and do not have access to child-specific groups or services to address their experiences.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

Social workers convene child protection strategy meetings with partner agencies so that risks and next steps can be considered. For some children, decision-making about specialist sexual abuse and child protection medicals is not explained on children’s records. Children who are at risk from sexual abuse are not always accessing expert medical practitioners’ support and advice. Risk assessments are not routinely completed to fully assess the circumstances and experiences of children when there are allegations of sexual abuse.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

Social workers regularly hold core group meetings that include professionals from relevant partner agencies, for example school staff, health visitors and school nurses. The impact of core group meetings is variable. When core groups are effective, information is shared, risk assessments are updated and action is taken so that children’s circumstances improve and risks reduce. Some core groups are not convened within appropriate timescales, and children experience avoidable delay in their circumstances improving.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

School staff generally have a very good understanding of risks to children. Regular information-sharing takes place between schools and social workers. Social workers and education colleagues work well together to respond to children’s needs and to progress child-in-need and child protection plans. They help identify resources, such as counselling, that help children understand their experiences and alleviate adversity in their home circumstances. When risks escalate, teachers are responsive and engage with children’s services. This is an area of strength.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

Pre-proceedings within the Public Law Outline remains an area for leaders to improve. Management oversight has improved with information available about the timeliness and quality of assessments. Leaders have recently changed panel processes with the aim of strengthening the consistency of practice. Progress for children subject to pre-proceedings is more likely where they receive the right level of support. For some children and families, child protection plans are not aligned with pre-proceedings processes. In particular, expert assessments are not always sought at the earliest opportunity to help inform and alleviate risks for children.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

For a small number of children, pre-birth risk assessments do not take account of all the significant risk factors, including important information from multi-agency professionals. This means, for example, babies are not consistently responded to at the right time, with appropriate services to reduce risks effectively.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

Social workers do not always have the confidence, and access to effective supervision, to support their understanding and response to complex abuse, including sexual abuse. This remains an area that senior managers have acknowledged needs further attention. They have begun to take steps that are intended to ensure that social workers have access to bespoke practice expertise through systemic practitioner consultations and the use of toolkits, training and research.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

There is an improving and stronger training offer, and evidence is emerging that this is impactful. Training has been provided to support the completion of case summaries and more effective supervision. Most children’s records have up-to-date summaries in place. Most social workers experience regular and consistent supervision. There has been some improvement in the quality of supervision, with managers supporting a more effective response to known situations of risk and setting out what needs to happen next. However, for some children, and for those in complex circumstances, decision-making is not detailed enough or sufficiently responsive to their needs.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

Leaders know their services very well and are focused on making further progress aligned to the right priorities in the Havering improvement plan. They recognise areas where more haste is required to strengthen practice. The performance management framework and associated reporting documents are providing the structure to help leaders build on the progress they have made so far.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

Where audits identify inadequate practice, this often remains an almost intractable issue and little progress is seen for children when re-audits take place. Concerted efforts have not consistently yielded the changes to practice required. The quality assurance framework provides for collaborative auditing with practitioners, children, families and carers. However, this is not consistently in place, limiting opportunities for rich social work discussions about practice. Auditors remain over-optimistic, and leaders must therefore rely on moderation of audits to identify and address shortfalls. Monthly audits are focused primarily on older children and consequently lack a sufficient focus on the particular experience and vulnerabilities of babies and younger children.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

Leaders have made strides in helping children’s social care staff respond to Havering’s increasingly diverse population. Social workers have a strong understanding of families’ ethnicity and religion, with assessments and plans being informed by cultural considerations. Social workers are confident in discussing and reflecting on their own experiences of racism, and they consequently often have helpful insights into families’ experiences.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

Social workers are returning to work in Havering. They appreciate the relational model of practice, feel supported in their professional development by the comprehensive training offer and have opportunities to develop their understanding and use of systemic practice. Social workers who met inspectors were open, passionate about their work and know their children well.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

Social workers report that senior leaders are visible, that caseloads are manageable and that there is a supportive work environment. This is persuading some agency staff to become permanent and encouraging social workers who have moved away to return to work in Havering.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

I am copying this letter to the Department for Education.

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