On Friday 7th April, the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) published its report on children’s social care in Tower Hamlets. The report found that “there are widespread and serious failures in the services provided to children who need help and protection in Tower Hamlets. As a result, too many children remain in situations of actual or potential harm for too long.” Ofsted, therefore, gave the service an overall rating of “inadequate”.

Responding to the report, Rushanara, said:

“Ofsted’s recent rating of “inadequate” following its inspection of children’s social care in Tower Hamlets is deeply worrying.”

“I take Ofsted’s findings extremely seriously. As the report states, there are approximately 65,000 children and young people under the age of 18 years that live in Tower Hamlets. We must ensure that every one of these children is appropriately cared for and not vulnerable to being a victim to actual, or as the report notes, even potential harm.”

“It is clear that Tower Hamlets Council need to quicken the pace and scale of the improvements that they are already making and I welcome the Mayor’s response to this report. The scale of the challenge that Mayor Biggs faces is enormous after the state the council was left in when his predecessor was removed from office. The organisational and financial changes that Tower Hamlets Council have made since 2015 will go towards improving children’s services. But what is clear from this report is that more needs to be done to ensure improvements are seen quickly.”

“Part of Ofsted’s purpose is to help councils understand what needs improving, I hope that all parties responsible for the protection of children in Tower Hamlets will read and act on this report as a matter of urgency.”

ENDS