Tara Geere, Director of Starting Well (Statutory Director for Children’s Services)
Tara joined Havering Children’s Services in September 2021 bringing a wealth of experience, having previously worked in leadership roles across local council children's social care services and then working within Ofsted, as one of Her Majesty's Inspectors of children’s social care.
"I started my career in social care in the early 1990’s in residential children’s homes, before moving on to manage a wide range of services across both Early Help and Statutory services including commissioning services, at senior levels in both large shire and smaller borough councils, before I went to work as an inspector.
"It was a privilege to work in Ofsted alongside many leaders in children's services across the country. I chose to return to the sector Havering at a time of great opportunity following the pandemic.
"I am very proud of our refreshed Face to Face systemic practice model and enhanced systemic training pathway, which supports practitioners to develop and sustain relationships and spend more time in face to face contact with our children and families. Empowering and supporting families to make sustained changes and improving children’s and families’ outcomes.
"Our caseloads are set specifically to aid our model of practice, so they are manageable and provide the chance to deliver purposeful, planned and focussed interventions in a relationship based manner.
"I want to build on the incredible work that was done prior to me coming to Havering, strengthening the dynamic responses to the challenges of the pandemic, maintaining and improving our relationships with partners to ensure that the needs of our most vulnerable children continued to be met.
"We are focused on targeting further service improvements, using my experiences of good and outstanding practice across the country to improve and innovate services to children and their families in Havering.
"I am passionate about hearing the voices of our children and using their feedback to improve and celebrate services and help co-produce our offers and policies. An example would be our recently updated children in care pledge, developed with our children in care group ‘Say it louder’.
"I am also very proud of the training offer we have for our staff. Our own dedicated Havering Social Care Academy (HSCA), led by our Principal Social Worker, takes the lead on providing professional development opportunities to our workforce.
"I along with my senior managers have a great passion for investing in learning and development opportunities, ensuring our workforce is equipped with the knowledge and skills they need to deliver high quality practice and promote the welfare of children, young people, and families.”