A council service for youngsters and their families has been rated ‘good’ by inspectors.

Community health services run by Newham Council for children and young people up to the age of 19 along with their families are safe, caring, effective and well led, according to the Care Quality Commission.

Cllr Sarah Ruiz, cabinet member for children’s social care, said: “This report is testament to the hard work of dedicated staff.

“There are some areas that we have to improve on and we will work on these to make what we do even better.

“We have a clear vision to put children, young people, and their families at the heart of everything we do and become the most child-friendly borough in the country.”

In a report published on Thursday the CQC gives the overall rating for a range of services offered by the council’s health teams.

Together they support parents, babies, children, young people, first-time mothers aged under 19, children up the age of five with disabilities, and children requiring early help and extra safeguarding.

Practitioners from the service deliver care and treatment to young people in their own home, schools, health and children’s centres.

The CQC inspectors visited the council over two days in January 2019.

Areas of good practice singled out were the protection of children and young people from harm; staff with the rights skills to do their jobs; and the availability of equipment for use by school nurses and health visitors.

The report judges services on five questions and then offers an overall rating. Newham was judged as good for each.

The CQC inspectors received feedback from Newham families that was consistently positive about the “respectful, caring, kind and compassionate” approach from staff.

Service users said they felt they could raise concerns when necessary and felt listened to.

Cllr Carleene Lee-Phakoe, assistant cabinet member for children’s social care, said: “I would like to thank our service users who took time to tell the CQC what they thought about the quality of care received.

“The inspectors pointed out that the feedback they received was all positive, which was really pleasing.”

Areas for improvement identified by the report include the need for formalised guidance on escalating complex safeguarding concerns, having systems to report performance, and staff compliance with best practice guidance over infection control.