About our Children’s services
We provide services that protect, care for and support our children, young people and their families in the borough.
We could not be prouder of our family help and social care offer including being a Families First for Children Pathfinder, which is an endorsement of our deep commitment to delivering the best possible outcomes for all our children and young people.
Our Children’s services department has been praised for its consistent service and strong practice across its teams and pathways for children in need, and we have a number of key roles that we are recruiting for now to continue the great work across the service.
Ofsted’s latest inspection in May 2025 found that the service has not only sustained its good standards but has also significantly strengthened its practice in several key areas.
Some of this good work has been highlighted in Ofsted’s most recent focused inspection, with inspectors saying that “children needing help and protection in Lewisham experience warm, trusting relationships with practitioners who know them well.” The report also notes that, “workers write poignant records, full of care, kindness and comfort for the children they support.”
The ongoing significant transformation of services, through a piloted, designed, and tested new structure, is proving effective. The report highlights “Bespoke, well targeted family help and edge of care work is helping to stabilise children in their family networks,” and “multi-agency teams are diverting children from child protection plans.”
Our Vision
Families First for Children Pathfinder Programme
We’re one of seven local authorities (and only one of two in London) chosen by the UK Government to trial the Families First for Children Pathfinder Programme, a new way of delivering certain children’s social care services.
We want to help even more children to stay with their families in safe and loving homes. We were selected by the UK Government to trial the Families First for Children Pathfinder programme, backed up by government funding in 2024 and been asked to continue reforms in 2025 as they have been working. It is delivered as a partnership between the Council, police and health. Other key local organisations from the education, voluntary and community sectors will also be part of the implementation.
This is great news for the Council and for the families we support in Lewisham. As one of a small number of local authorities chosen in England, the UK Government’s confidence in the council to deliver this important programme further underscores the significant improvement in our children’s services, coming just months after our children’s services were rated as ‘Good’ by Ofsted and following our reinspection in May 2025, have shown we are strengthening our services due to the reforms we have made through the programme.
What Good Children’s Social Work Looks Like in Lewisham
- Families are respected and supported to stay together, whenever there is safety.
- Families will tell us they understand why we are involved.
- Children will tell us their social worker has made a difference to their lives.
- Children who are in our care know we care, and we won’t give up on them.
- Young people who have been in our care feel confident about their future.
If you come and work with us, it’s an opportunity to help shape the future of social work practice with children and families in Lewisham. It is a privilege to have been selected to deliver this programme and places Lewisham in the forefront of national work on the social care reforms.
About Lewisham
Lewisham is an exciting place to live – made up of vibrant and distinct communities that stretch from Blackheath to Sydenham and from Deptford to Downham.
The borough is changing too. Over the last decade we have seen considerable investment and growth and we continue to welcome the new families making Lewisham their home.
Inequality is growing in society and too many Lewisham residents do not get to share in the wealth and opportunities that London has to offer. Austerity has also meant that all councils have been forced to cut services when residents needs are increasing.
Our Corporate Strategy sets out how we will deliver for our resident. How, in the face of austerity, where councils have been forced to cut services, we can still make a difference and change lives. Importantly, it is also about how we protect the individual identities of our neighbourhoods and continue to make Lewisham a place we love to live in.
We are building on Lewisham’s historic values – fairness, equality and putting our community at the heart of everything we do – and turning these values into practical, deliverable policies.
