Nine local authorities rated as "poor"
Children's services in nine local authorities were rated as "poor" in a report released by Ofsted today.
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By Adam Leveridge. |  |
Wednesday, 09, Dec 2009 12:31
by Alex Plough
Children's services in nine local authorities were rated as "poor" in a report released by Ofsted today.
Authorities singled out for criticism were Birmingham, Cornwall, Doncaster, Essex, Haringey, Leeds, Rotherham, Warrington and Wokingham. All received the lowest rating possible.
Out of the 152 English authorities assessed, Ten received an "excellent" rating for children's services, while 94 were judged "good" and 40 "adequate".
Authorities that received an "excellent" rated were Blackburn with Darwen, Camden, City of London, Kensington and Chelsea, Kingston-upon-Thames, Lewisham, Richmond-upon-Thames, Tower Hamlets, Wandsworth, and York.
In the worst performing authoritiees, Ofstead's identified "serious weaknesses in aspects of social care provision for children and young people" as well as "Insufficient numbers of permanent and experienced social workers".
Haringey council had "significant weaknesses in areas of social care provision" and "safeguarding [was judged] to be inadequate".
The number of under-performing children's services has increased from the eight identified last year.
Christine Gilbert, Ofsted's chief inspector, said: "These results show that the majority of councils are doing a good job and the vast majority are at least satisfactory...The small number of poorly performing authorities must renew their determination to improve, in the knowledge that it is both possible and necessary".
Haringey Council Leader Cllr Claire Kober said: "We continue to work very hard to address the fundamental problems in our child protection services.
Major changes have already been made and officers and councillors are committed to doing all we can to make Haringey's child protection the best there is."