Children and young people

Education standards in Havering are high and have been recognised for their excellence. Over the last three years, inspections have consistently rated our schools at the highest level.

Our combined Children's Services have also been judged at the highest level possible – an achievement of which only 10 out of 150 other local authorities can claim.

To ensure we maintain this standard, we have spoken to many people when considering the way forward to find out exactly what people of all ages want. We listened to children and young people, and their parents and carers. We looked at information from within the council, as well as what inspectors have said. We were also careful to listen to our partners and their priorities, and worked in with what central government considers their priorities.

 From all of this, we have been able to sum up what we want for all children and young people in Havering: excellence and equity.

We want to:

• maintain and continue improvements we are making in our schools;
• make the best use of technology within schools and communities so that children and young people have access to the benefits of the internet;
• raise learning and qualification targets so that our young people can get better, higher paid jobs;
• improve access to leisure and sporting activities for young people to help promote healthy lifestyles.

This is the just the beginning. There are many other areas we will be working on both within the council itself and also with our partners. We want to continue to improve the lives for all young people in the borough, and will work hard to make sure this happens for all.

How are we going to do this?

Here in Havering, we are aiming to make sure children and young people are valued for what they contribute to all our lives. To achieve this, we are working towards promoting 5 main points;

Be healthy

We want to improve services for babies and their mothers by better support for dietary choices and more widespread immunisation. We will also be concentrating on health choices in the home that affect early development: such as smoking in the home. We are also going to improve our efforts to combat obesity.

We want to see more improvements in the services dealing with drug and alcohol misuse and sexual health.

Be safe

We want to improve safety for children in the home and in environments where they learn and play.

Enjoy and achieve

We are planning more day care and play places so that even more children are provided with the best chances for a better education.

We want to improve education levels and opportunities for minority groups and children in care, and make sure they achieve the same level of excellence as their peers.

Make a positive contribution

We are going to improve the ways in which children and young people in Havering can become involved in making decisions that affect them. We will start this by making sure we listen to what children and young people tell us about their day to day experiences of living in the borough.

Enjoy economic well-being

We are working on ways to improve the range of work-related courses young people can take at school and college, as well as encouraging more students to continue their education into sixth form and beyond.