Council’s children’s services rated ‘outstanding’ after investing £1.3m in mental health support

By Joe Coughlan, Local Democracy Reporter

A local authority has been rated ‘outstanding’ in its children’s services department by Ofsted after investing £1.3million in kids’ mental health support.

The education watchdog praised Greenwich council for its treatment of staff as well as its ability to work with partners.

The result has seen the authority receive an ‘outstanding’ rating for the first time since the new framework for inspections was introduced. The council and its partners were praised for the positive experiences of children in care as well as care leavers and the overall effectiveness of the provisions.

Greenwich council had received a ‘good’ rating in its previous two inspections. Labour Councillor Anthony Okereke, leader of the council, said an emphasis had been placed on recruiting more foster parents, ultimately leading to an improvement in the service.

He added that the council had recently invested in providing new emotional wellbeing facilities in schools to support children’s wellbeing, due to open in September.

Cllr Okereke said: “We’ve done work to invest £1.3million in setting up eight wellbeing hubs. Obviously we know that there is a national mental health issue. We’ve devised a local solution to help tackle this national issue, to make sure kids in Greenwich get the mental health support that they need.

“The leadership from the front is really there and we make sure that we challenge our staff even more. But not just our staff, we also challenge our partners.”

The council leader said the positive result stood as a credit to the council, showing that children and young people were safe in the authority’s hands. He said his experience of education while growing up was affected while he was receiving treatment for his sickle cell disease.

Cllr Okereke said: “I have come into this knowing that we can’t afford to fail children who have challenges in their lives and the way we overcome that is making sure that we understand how we support them so they can achieve the right outcomes.

“It’s not just a priority for me, it’s an ambition to make sure people don’t have the lived experience that I had.”