Haringey Council has received its first 'good' rating for its children's services department.

The council's leadership praised the "watershed" moment for the local authority, which became notorious after the deaths of Victoria Climbie in 2000 and Baby P in 2007.

It received Ofsted's second-lowest 'requires improvement' rating in 2014, and under previous systems the second lowest rating of 'adequate' in 2011, the lowest 'poor' rating in 2009, and its equivalent 'inadequate' in 2008.

Inspectors visited the borough in February 2023, when they assessed the care, help and protection given to children and young people and what leaders are doing to improve services.

The council received the second-highest 'good' rating in almost all categories, including the experiences and progress of children who need help and protection and care leavers.

But it received the lower 'requires improvement' rating for the experiences and progress of children in care.

The report said: "In 2018, inspectors judged Haringey children’s services to require improvement to be good. Since then, an ambitious and stable leadership team has made considerable progress and much of the service is now transformed."

But it added progress for children in care "has not been achieved at the same pace".

"While many children in care are supported well, others have experienced significant delay in achieving permanence, and some have had too many social workers," it added.

The summarised findings from Ofsted’s report outlines how leaders know what is happening in Haringey and “want to learn and do the right thing for children.”

Cllr Peray Ahmet, leader of Haringey Council, and the local authority's chief executive Andy Donald said in a joint statement: “We are really pleased that Ofsted have graded our children’s services ‘good’. This is a watershed moment for Haringey.

“We have worked hard over many years to build a strong team and put children and young people at the heart of what we do.

“This judgement is testament to the hard work and professionalism shown by our dedicated staff and the positive impact they have on the lives of children and young people. It is a turnaround that we are all rightly proud of and shows we are moving in the right direction."

They added: “The report highlighted a need for us to have a stronger focus on children in care to ensure we can support them to achieve the best possible outcomes.

"We are fully committed to doing this and will be implementing a programme of further service improvements in order to achieve this.

“We recognise this is a significant milestone, but we are not complacent, and work will go on at pace to ensure we provide excellent services to benefit our most vulnerable children and young people.”