A ‘good' Ofsted rating is always a cause for celebration – but perhaps nowhere more so this year in Croydon. Our inspection in October came after four very eventful years for our borough. It took place four years and one month after the Report in the Public Interest (RIPI) in September 2020, which was followed swiftly by the issuing of the council's first Section 114 Notice, a rapid report by the then Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, and the arrival of a government-appointed improvement and assurance panel. Another RIPI charting more historical failures followed in 2022. As has been well-documented, Croydon was in the depths of a financial and governance crisis.

So, although the council had been rated ‘good' by Ofsted in March 2020, suffice to say there had been much water under the bridge – not to mention a global pandemic - by the time inspectors visited us this year. The council's previous ‘good' rating had been a considerable improvement from ‘inadequate' in 2017, achieved with major investment – time and an extra £10m per year - in children's services. In contrast, since 2020, Croydon LBC has made £137m in savings of which £12m has been made from children's services. Residents voted for a total change in governance to become a Mayoral authority; and we have had a complete change in senior leadership, both political and officer. We have been delivering a comprehensive whole council improvement and transformation programme, at pace.