Setting

Tony Theodoulou Executive Director – People London Borough of Enfield Civic Centre Enfield Middlesex EN1 3XY

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Focused visit to London Borough of Enfield children’s services

This letter summarises the findings of the focused visit to the London Borough of Enfield children’s services on 27 and 28 January 2026. His Majesty’s Inspectors for this visit were Mandy Nightingale, Gemma McNevin and Mark Scanlon.

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Focused visit to London Borough of Enfield children’s services

Inspectors looked at the local authority’s arrangements for care leavers aged 18 to 21 years old, focusing on the local offer, the quality and suitability of accommodation, staying close and in touch and care leavers with specific needs.

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Focused visit to London Borough of Enfield children’s services

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 previous inspection in July 2024, the leadership team has continued to focus on improving services for care leavers in Enfield, particularly around the local offer. A restructure of the care leavers’ service in the summer of 2025 has increased the capacity of the service, maintaining manageable caseloads and creating a clear progression route for the workforce. This move supports the local authority’s relationship-based practice model and is supporting the retention of highly skilled and experienced practitioners.

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Headline findings

A well-structured quality assurance framework provides leaders and managers with an accurate overview of the quality and impact of practice of the care leavers’ service and informs future training, learning and development for Personal Advisers (PA) and social workers.

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Headline findings

Leaders know their care leavers’ needs and their service well and understand what needs to be improved to continue to strengthen multi-agency working to improve the experiences and progress for care leavers. 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

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Main findings

Since the last ILACS inspection in July 2024, leaders have had a strong focus on improving the local offer for care leavers.

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Main findings

The care leavers’ hub is now well established and offers regular, practical support, advice and independent living skills to young people. PAs and social workers know the local offer well and encourage young people to engage and attend sessions at the hub. Through the hub, care leavers can engage with support, learn new skills and create local links outside of children’s services.

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Main findings

The Care Leavers Hub is a welcoming and cozy space. Young people are supported to express their views on a broad range of topics, to be incorporated in the development of new activities to support them and other care leavers.

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Main findings

PAs and social workers engage well with young people to ensure that they know their rights and entitlements under the local offer through a variety of different ways, for example via email and ‘WhatsApp’ messages and in their pathway plan. Information is extensively discussed with young people to help them understand the offer and identify where they can be supported. Young people make good use of the local offer, accessing a range of support that meets their needs.

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Main findings

Inspectors saw evidence where leaders and workers go above and beyond the written local offer to offer support to young people in very sensitive circumstances. This not only meets the complex needs of some young people but strengthens the development of long-lasting, trusting professional relationships.

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Main findings

Enfield’s care-leaver service is a multi-disciplinary team made up of managers, leaders, PAs and social workers who have a wealth of experience supporting young people with highly complex needs. The staffing group is stable. Decisions to allocate a PA or social worker are made according to the young person’s needs. Some young people remain with social workers post 18 if this is deemed to be in their best interest. As a result of these trusting relationships, young people are encouraged and supported to identify their own needs to reach their goals.

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Main findings

PAs and social workers know the young people they work with very well and, through their dedication and commitment, they encourage young people to develop trusting professional and personal relationships with those that matter to them most. Leaders, PAs and social workers are aspirational for young people.

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Main findings

PAs and social workers acknowledge that they do not make decisions for the 18-21- years-old that they work with, but they see their role as identifying what support would be available for the young person. Their knowledge of local resources and support available and their creative approach to meeting needs means workers skilfully engage young people to help them make informed decisions about their lives. PAs and social workers maintain regular contact with young people, and this is based on the young person’s individual needs and wishes. Inspectors saw staying in touch arrangements through statutory visits, phone calls, WhatsApp messages and visits to the care leavers’ hub. This ranged from daily, weekly and monthly contact, dependent on the young person’s needs at the time.

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Main findings

Workers recognise when young people are at risk of safeguarding and work well with other agencies to reduce risk and educate young people about risk. PAs and social workers advocate on behalf of young people. However, more importantly, they give young people the skills and confidence to speak up for themselves.

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Main findings

Pathway plans are developed and reviewed in collaboration with young people. Each contact the PAs or social worker has with the young person informs the pathway plan, and inspectors saw dynamic pathway plans that change to reflect the young person’s needs at the time. When young people are not ready to address a need or engage with support, the pathway plan acknowledges this and encourages young people to reconsider when the time is right for them.

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Main findings

Young people live in suitable accommodation that is meeting their needs. Professional relationships with housing agencies and providers ensure that young people feel safe and swift action is taken when difficulties arise.

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Main findings

The experienced and stable leadership team in Enfield knows its service well. Leaders are outward facing and engage with government departments, other local authorities, charitable organisations and partner agencies to continue to develop their care leavers’ service. Leaders have strong political and corporate support.

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Main findings

Leaders have developed and embedded a comprehensive and robust quality assurance framework. Effective audits include discussions with staff and engagement of young people, and a well-structured and effective moderation panel provides leaders, managers and staff with an assurance of the quality of practice and impact on the experiences and progress of care leavers.

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Main findings

The outcomes of the quality assurance process inform future training, learning and development of the care leaver service workforce. Leaders commission internal and external opportunities for continued professional development, meaning that training for PAs and social workers working with care leavers aged 18 years and over is relevant and is having an impact on ensuring that knowledge, skills and practice is relevant and current.

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Main findings

Leaders work with a broad range of partner agencies to ensure that care leavers’ needs are met. Enfield has a wide range of topic-specific multi-agency panels that review the needs of care leavers effectively. PAs and social workers are supported to reflect on young people’s needs and consider the broad range of services available to ensure that they are accessing the most relevant resource to meet the young person’s needs, and partner agencies are held to account for the services they provide. Leaders recognise the significant demand for services to support young people seeking asylum in the UK. They have worked closely with an external agency, CORAM and other London boroughs to ensure that these very vulnerable young people get the immigration support and legal advice they need. Leaders ensure that the care leaver service’s workforce has access to relevant and up-to-date advice and training to upskill their knowledge and understanding of this complex area of

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Main findings

practice. Leaders implemented a new role in the local authority, a Care Leavers Asylum and Immigration lead, to provide a continuous provision of support to the managers, PAs and social workers. This enables workers to competently and confidently support young people.

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Main findings

PAs and social workers reported caseloads that are manageable. Workers are allocated young people based on skills and experience. They told inspectors they were confident in the support available to them if they felt their casework was becoming overwhelming.

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Main findings

Regular and highly effective one-to-one and group supervision support PAs and social workers to reflect on and evaluate their work with care leavers, and this gives managers an overview of the progress for care leavers. The written supervision records are clear and concise and contain relevant actions with clear timescales. This enables staff and managers to understand and be accountable for what needs to happen next and when.

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Main findings

PAs and social workers stay in the Enfield care leaver service for a long time. They told inspectors this is because of the highly supportive teams and the culture and accessibility of leaders and managers.

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Main findings

During this focus visit, inspectors were able to speak to a randomly selected number of young people. They told inspectors ‘it is a 5-star service’, ‘my worker was amazing at providing a committed support to me’ and ‘every help I need I have got it from them’.

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Main findings

Ofsted will take the findings from this focused visit into account when planning the next inspection or visit.

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