Parents of SEND children state desperate emails and phone calls have been completely ignored, and their concerns dismissed by the council. Councillors insist they do not underestimate these feelings and are committed to making the right changes.

Local activist and campaigner Ruth Kettle Frisby has been very vocal in the battle to save services for SEND children across Havering. Ruth, who is one of the many mothers who has been protesting about the possible cuts to travel for SEND children, has posed a series of questions to Cabinet Member for Education, Councillor Oscar Ford.

Todays she writes:

We have been reminded again and again by the council that there is a considerable demographic of children in Havering, and that there is an increase in children with disabilities. To some extent I sympathise that what you term ‘demand’ isn’t being met by central government funding. This is how you have responded to the appalling OFSTED report on children’s services in Havering. You have accepted the findings therein, but we are yet to see any evidence of actual accountability.

I’ve been in touch with other parents and carers in the borough to come up with the following questions for you.

1. Following your narrative first of all, is failing the children in our borough an inevitable consequence of inadequate government funding, and if so, surely you could and indeed should have foreseen these grave breaches in your duty of care in advance?

The Inspection report published by Ofsted in February acknowledged that Havering has a good understanding of the areas for improvement and had an accurate self-evaluation of Children’s Service’s that was shared with Ofsted prior to the inspection.  The Ofsted report highlights that a number of factors have led us to this position including funding issues. Havering has been monitoring the high caseloads and its impact on meeting the needs of children. This has been caused by the significant growth in the child population and corresponding increase in demand for services. As an example, our child in care population has grown by 26% in the last three years with a corresponding cost of placement rise of 175% in the same period.  The statutory Director of Children’s Services (DCS) had raised concerns with both the Department for Education (DfE) and Ofsted prior to the inspection and alerted leaders to the issues being faced.  We accept the Ofsted findings and are working on an improvement plan that is being developed with the DfE with oversight from an improvement board. 

2. Finances aside, at a basic level of humanity and professional care, empathy and respect should be at the heart of how you all function; yet desperate emails and phonecalls have been completely ignored, and parents concerns dismissed.
What can we expect in terms of accountability for a rotten culture that has led to consistent failures of teams and individuals who work in children’s services?

Where parents have concerns, or feel that their issues have not been addressed, they can contact me or their ward Councillors for support. The Council has a formal complaints process and beyond the Council the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman service is available.  The qualities you describe of humanity, professional care, empathy and respect are absolutely at the heart of what we do, and this is why officers do the job they do. If you were to speak to any social worker in Havering, you would hear the passion for social work and the children they care for. As stated, the published report is clear that the current DCS ‘has a good understanding of the improvements required and has brought a more rigorous focus and vision to children’s services and has provided a realistic appraisal of the quality of the service and practice for children in Havering’. The report also goes onto say that the DCS has the confidence and support of the chief executive and political leaders (me included). They have a clear line of sight regarding the challenges facing the service. Corporate and political leaders have worked together to understand the needs of children and have begun to invest in children’s services.’

In terms of accountability and oversight and as a result of the inadequate judgement, the DfE have served Havering with a statutory notice of improvement. As part of this process the DfE will appoint an Independent Improvement advisor who will provide advice on our improvement plan and sit on the required Practice Improvement Oversight Board that we have to establish as part of the DfE intervention. 

Havering are required to submit our improvement plan to Ofsted by the end of May 2024. Our plan is being developed with cross-party political and corporate support.

Ofsted will come back to undertake a monitoring visit within six months of the publication of the report and then every three months to check progress against our plan, usually Ofsted carry out between 4 and 6 monitoring visits before a re-inspection. The re-inspection will follow on in approximately two years and will be a full two-week inspection.

We are committed to making the changes despite the current financial challenges Havering faces. Leaders have tried to protect and prioritise funding to Children’s Services with an additional £20m invested during 2011 to 2023. However, this in the context that funding for Children’s Social Care is still set using 2011 data in comparison to other funding. For example, the allocation of Schools capital basic needs funding for 2025 – 2026 where Havering has been allocated 57% of the whole of the London basic needs funding to support the growth in school places required, whilst our national funding for core services has been cut.

In 2023 – 2024 Havering invested a further £8m into Children’s Services this included the development of two additional social work teams alongside further growth required to cover the £4.6m overspend (mainly caused by child in care placements and Home to School transport pressures). Whilst these teams had been developed prior to the Ofsted inspection dates, recruitment to the teams proved to be more challenging in line with the national difficulties in social work recruitment and had not made the desired changes in reducing caseloads.

A further £0.64m was also invested in 2023-2024 as an ‘invest to save’ to grow our own workforce by having an additional 10 newly qualified Social Workers per year over a 3-year period (with a total investment being £1.92m). An additional £9.2m is being added in 2024 – 2025 to cover the current 2023 – 2024 overspend of £9.2m caused by workforce (use of agency), child in care placements and Home to School transport pressures. 

3. Why is Tara Geere never publicly available to parents to be held to account in her role as Children’s Director, for example at carer consultations and Havering SEND Family Voice meetings?

Mrs Geere is and has been available and is accountable and extremely passionate about her role. Tara was acting up as the DCS following the departure of the previous Director (Robert South) in April 2023 and also continued to cover the Assistant Director role for Children’s Social Care. She was made the permanent DCS in November 2023, four weeks before the Ofsted inspection. An interim Assistant Director for Children’s Services was appointed in March 2024, and this will give Tara the capacity to attend more public meetings. Tara meets with the representatives of the SEND families at the SEND board that she now chairs. She attends many public meetings in her role for example I was alongside Tara at the Special Meeting of the People Overview & Scrutiny Sub Committee on Thursday, 1st February which was exclusively on home to school transport for children and young people. Overview & Scrutiny Sub Committee meetings are open to the public to observe proceedings. Full details can be found on the Councils website as to the date and Agenda items of all Committees within the Council.

If there are meetings that you feel Tara should attend, please do let me know and I am confident she will accommodate these in her diary where possible. 

4. If the wellbeing of some of our borough’s most vulnerable children is your priority, as you claim, why didn’t your internal processes detect that children were being left to cope without intervention, and even exposed to prolonged harm?

Just to confirm, as the Cabinet Member I do not have an operational role and processes will be the responsibility of the Council Leadership Team and their officers. Ofsted noted in their report that ‘most families receiving early help benefit from the support they receive, with a range of services making a difference to children’s lives. A small number of children wait too long for support to be provided’ due to the demand we are experiencing. Inspectors reported that the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) that deals with contacts and referrals into Children’s Services is responsive and effective: ‘Experienced and professionally curious Social Workers collect and evaluate information quickly and competently. They consider and record consent in the majority of cases, and historical information is appropriately considered to inform risk assessments. This means that risks to children are well understood and responded to appropriately. Management oversight is evident at all stages within the MASH. Partnership-working in the MASH is effective and the co-location of services is a strength, with good information-sharing and early identification of urgent matters leading to a timely response for children at risk of harm’.

The Inspectors also commented positively on the redeveloped quality assurance programme in Havering translating findings ‘into learning, which is used to target areas for service improvement and learning for individual Social Workers’. However, the report does go on to say that ‘capacity at an operational level means actions identified for individual children are not followed through sufficiently’, this is something that the authority is trying to address through a recruitment programme. 

5. I’m interested in the reason you applied for your job in the first place. Was it because you genuinely care and have a passion for making a positive difference to vulnerable children and their families?

Cabinet Members do not apply for their positions as it is the gift of the Leader of the Council in what is known as ‘The Strong Leader Model’. I bring to my role a long standing and well-developed public service ethic (39 years), and a body of knowledge and understanding, having previously worked in local government in Senior Manger capacities and have personal experience in bringing up three sons one of whom is neurodiverse.  I can assure you that both Tara and I do not take our positions lightly. As mentioned above, Tara cares about her job deeply and her focus is wholly on improving the service and improving outcomes. Both the Lead Member for Children’s Services and statutory Director of Children’s Services have statutory guidance, which sets out the requirements about the roles that Tara and I undertake. Both myself, Tara, officers and other Councilors are passionate about improving the lives of the residents of Havering and I feel privileged to be in a position where I can drive improvements to services to meet the needs of our most vulnerable children and young people within our communities. I have seen staff within our services going out, listening, empowering, and supporting our children, young people and families to help make a difference, and celebrate the wins (even the smallest win), supported by a range of partners including our vast number of our good and outstanding schools within the borough. I have undertaken numerous national training programmes that take place of a weekend demonstrating my dedication in ensuring Havering is delivering up-to date effective programmes of support, within the financial envelope we have.  

6. If you are confident you can turn this dire situation around, what will you do to ensure that you are doing everything in your power – with the limited resources you draw attention to – to uphold the human rights, dignity and opportunities for all of the disempowered and underprivileged children and families in this borough who need you?

I speak on behalf of the current administration, wider council and our partners when we say we feel confident that we have the right plans in place. Just to reiterate, Councillors do not deliver the services but challenge and ensure the policies are in place to deliver effective services. I also speak on behalf of Tara Geere and her teams who are committed to supporting our aims to ensure the children of Havering are able to lead happy, healthy lives and meet their full potential.  Staff have the passion and commitment to make the changes that Ofsted could see were already in place, which will deliver improvement over time. 

The Ofsted report notes that the workforce feels supported by its senior management team and collectively we want to deliver the changes that Ofsted require and that they had noted in the report that had already started prior to the inspection. 

7. Will you issue a public apology for failing the children in our borough on behalf of the department you are in charge of?

From my position as the Lead Member for Children, and on behalf of the Council, I issued an apology on the morning of the Ofsted report was published. In it I said:

“We accept the findings of the report, and we are sorry that some of our children and young people have had to wait too long for support. The safeguarding and wellbeing of our children and young people has always been, and will continue to be, a top priority for the Council. 

I do not underestimate the feeling many parents will have about the Ofsted inspection and how our services are not yet delivering our ambitions. This is why we are committed to getting this right. Words only go so far, and it is through our actions that will show how we will improve as our children’s lives are extremely important to us.”

8. Will you work with knowledgeable charities and organisations representing vulnerable children to ensure that you transform the culture of poor performance, monitor good practices, and serve the needs of children and families with dignity, care and safeguarding?

We do work with charities and organisations and will continue to work with groups to co-design and produce services where possible. The nature of the safeguarding inspection means that our improvement work has to be carefully planned and monitored. However, I am confident that we will be able to transform our services and serve the needs of children, young people and families.

In addition, during 2023 the council carried out three surveys engaging with children and young people across the borough and has recently undertaken a fourth. Prior to this, the borough did not systematically listen to the voices of children and young people, and we are committed to extend engagement with them over the coming years. You may also be interested to hear that we will be launching the boroughs first Communications Strategy and Community Engagement Strategy, which will improve public engagement for all ages. 

Many of these surveys invited schools including special schools to participate, to empower vulnerable children and amplifying their voice. As the Ofsted report states, there is a commitment to hearing children’s voices, but this has not been consistently acted on historically, and part of our improvement plan aims to address this. 

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