Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Children's Commissioner's report on childhood recognises Haringey!
The Children's Commissioner for England has published a detailed report today about how children experience services in this country, and the impact on them and their life chances.
Called the Childhood Lottery it sets out evidence from a huge number of data sets which illustrate how children's lives can be affected so profoundly by virtue of where they live and the services provided - effectively a real postcode lottery. The report is here:
https://assets.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/wpuploads/2026/10/The-C...
In the research Haringey comes 7th nationally as one of 'The least challenging places to be a child'.
This ranking, combining all the individual rankings across so many different areas is a vindication of Haringey's work and approach to children's services over many years.
Despite challenging financial pressures, we protected our early years, early education and childcare services; supported schools in raising standards to 98% good or outstanding; improved support for children looked after, and for care leavers; developed additional bases in schools for children with special educational needs and worked creatively to improve work with young offenders.
Its a record to be proud of and I am delighted the Children's Commissioner has recognised the huge amount of work done in Haringey across Children's and other services over many years to give children a good start in life.
Zena Brabazon
Labour Councillor, 2018-2026, Harringay ward
Declaration - I was Cabinet Member for Children, Schools and Families, 2021-2026
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jamie Harper
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There is an uncomfortable irony in recognising the great work you and your team have done for child welfare in Haringey. Which, of course, is that, as the pre- and post-election polling show, you lost the support of the electorate because of your refusal to acknowledge and condemn your party's role in the harms inflicted on hundreds of thousands of children in a different country.
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Admin for testingPermalink Reply by Hugh -
Well done to you and all those who have contributed to getting this recognition.
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Hi Zena - I think this is a great reflection of the work you and the team did in transforming children's services from one of the darkest places they have been.
I know you and Anna were constantly frustrated by the council officers in tackling the dangerous levels of pollution created by the grill restaurants along Green Lanes. These have a huge potential to create life limiting conditions for thousands of children who call Harringay home.
Thanks to the work you started, we have momentum in getting the council officers to address the problem - with money being requested from the Mayor of London to fund the restaurants to have adequate filtration. Getting the Director of Public Health on board was a great idea.
I wonder if you could speak with the local Labour leadership and confirm their commitment to protecting children's health from this local public health emergency? We'd love to get them on board - the more voices protecting our children the better.
Also, if you or any of the party have any contacts in Harringay’s grill restaurants, it would be great if you could nudge them to make the changes to ensure they can operate adequately (council terminology) and protect our health.
Otherwise it will be our children that pay the price.
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