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

This letter summarises the findings of the monitoring visit to Havering children’s services on 10 and 11 February 2026. This was the fourth monitoring visit since the last inspection in December 2023, when the effectiveness of services was judged to be inadequate. His Majesty’s Inspectors for this visit were Naintara Khosla and Sally Sinclair.

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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

◼ The experiences of care leavers and the support they receive into adulthood. ◼ The help care leavers receive to settle into employment, education and training. ◼ The quality of accommodation, risk assessment and safety planning for care leavers.

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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

Political and corporate leaders remain unwavering in their commitment to ensuring that children and families in Havering get the support they need. They are 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 responding proactively to rising demographic pressures. Despite significant budget pressures, the council has increased investment so that services can continue to meet the needs of vulnerable children and care leavers. This has helped leaders to maintain manageable caseloads for most social workers, and for some personal advisers. Leaders are restructuring service delivery, improving supervision, delivering a consistent staff training offer and embedding recruitment pathways to strengthen their ability to provide stable, quality relationships with all care leavers. The virtual school is increasing opportunities and pathways for children in care and care leavers to access education, employment and training, supporting their aspirations and providing positive activities that reflect their interests. Progress has been made, but

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Headline findings

there is more to do to ensure more consistent planning and support that delivers benefits for all care leavers.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

As a corporate parent, the local authority has made important strides in promoting the meaningful involvement of children and care leavers in developing services. This is a strength, reflecting a strong commitment to listening to, valuing and acting on the voices of care-experienced children and young people. This embedded corporate parenting approach is being augmented to involve disabled young people more fully in shaping services.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

The care leaving hub, The Cocoon, continues to provide an excellent, accessible resource for care leavers who utilise the space for community get togethers, learning new skills and, in the words of one care leaver, as ‘somewhere to hang out’. This community-based resource helps reduce young people’s isolation and promotes their connection to the 16+ service.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

A sustained focus on education plans and securing pathways into employment and training is having a positive impact for care leavers, with a council-wide commitment creating aspirational opportunities for young people. Practitioners understand well the various pathways available for young people. They use personal education plans and pathway plans well to support efforts to increase young people’s access to work experience and apprenticeships, and to help them attend university.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

Leaders are making some progress in strengthening services for care leavers, although further work is needed to embed consistently effective practice. The support that children in care receive as they transition towards leaving care is a crucial part of this. Those young people who have consistent relationships with social workers describe them as highly supportive, reliable and impactful, particularly during periods of emotional difficulty. Long-term foster homes and ‘staying put’ arrangements provide young people with a strong sense of security and continuity. Care leavers supported by the 16+ service who met with inspectors were positive about the support available to them. They have good access to independent visitors and opportunities to complete work experience and celebrate their achievements. Most young people benefit from independent reviewing officers, who advocate for them, champion their interests and promote plans that help and support their

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Findings and evaluation of progress

progression into adulthood. When supported well, young people are helped to understand budgeting, the importance of meal planning and cooking, and their accommodation options.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

Most children approach adulthood with detailed, up-to-date pathway plan assessments in place. These provide helpful insight into their early lives and their experiences prior to coming into care and contribute to a life-story record of their history and decisions that have been made about them. This helps them to make positive progress into adulthood. Children’s plans also contain information about their health needs, with an effective health and therapeutic offer to assist with addressing any early trauma they may have experienced. Social workers are thoughtful about culture and ethnicity and they understand family heritage. They help young people explore relationships, manage their family time and, where possible, strengthen their family networks.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

When children and young people who are leaving care have had stable relationships with social workers and PAs, their needs and experiences are better understood, and their wishes are sought and inform plans made for them. Some inconsistencies remain, however. Key documents, such as passports and national insurance numbers, are not always available on case records or confirmed in pathway plans, so that care leavers do not always have the information they need to be ready for college and employment. Pathway plans do not consistently provide details about what will happen next about young people’s living arrangements, how they can get financial advice and about the rights and entitlements contained in the local offer.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

Variability of support for some children approaching adulthood continues to affect the quality and sustainability of their relationships prior to and post age 18. Practitioners bring a wide range of skills and experience, and their commitment and passion for supporting young people are evident. They are compassionate, thoughtful and are responsive to their presenting needs. Some care leavers have warm, caring and trusting relationships with consistent personal advisers (PAs). When this is the case, their PAs are better able to advocate for them and to support and action their expressed wishes, ensure that they receive all their benefit entitlements and help them to progress positively with their aspirations. However, not all care leavers have had a stable, reliable relationship with a nurturing adult to help them navigate the complexities and challenges of adulthood.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

Workforce turnover and sickness absences have also made it harder for some young people to engage with their PA. These difficulties have resulted in an inconsistent understanding of some young people’s histories, their care plans and things that are important to them, and their inclusion and voice are not always reflected in practice. When this is the case, care leavers’ records do not give a clear picture of their experiences, rights and entitlements, hindering their access to leaving care benefits. Frequent changes of managers have also made it harder to maintain consistent oversight of care leavers’ needs and to sustain a compassionate culture and the warm, consistent, supportive relationships that help care leavers to thrive. Recently recruited managers are starting to make a positive difference by providing more consistent supervision and oversight, with young people’s experiences more central

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Findings and evaluation of progress

The frequency of visits to young people does not always increase in line with their needs and vulnerabilities, including care leavers who are parents and those who are in custody. Visits and contacts with some of these young people are not consistent enough for trusting relationships to develop and to ensure that they have the help they need to manage the practicalities of life. When PAs work tenaciously to build relationships with care leavers and are responsive to their needs, the quality of support is significantly better, ensuring that young people can access benefits. A lack of early, regular visits to care leavers in custody affects connections to their families and communities and weakens planning for their release.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

When children are being groomed into exploitation, social workers show commitment and tenacity in their efforts to tackle this, with very regular visits that recognise the need to build trusting relationships. Professionals remain aware of, and alert to, risk as these children enter adulthood. They use specific assessment tools to understand the extent of concerns, and they take effective action to mitigate risks. When there are significant risks of exploitation and of young people going missing, child protection strategy meetings are held regularly, and information is shared with the youth offending service and police to inform disruption activities. Social workers undertake mapping exercises to understand young people’s view of places and spaces and assess this information to inform safety plans. However, licensing and police involvement are not always timely, so that risks are not always mitigated

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Findings and evaluation of progress

A suitable range of accommodation options is available, and in stronger practice, these options are considered with young people. Positively, care leavers are helped to bid for tenancies, and many are successful and have the life skills to sustain them. Some vulnerable young people are living in supported accommodation arrangements that do not sufficiently mitigate risks and are not suited to their needs.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

Performance management information and quality assurance audits are helping leaders and managers to better understand children’s experiences. The service has made some progress in using audit findings to identify when remedial action is needed to strengthen practice. However, collaborative auditing and feedback from children and families are not embedded. When social workers are included in audits, they engage in rich discussions about their practice and the young people they work with. Auditing practice tends to be over-optimistic, and moderation is still required. I am copying this letter to the Department for Education.

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