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Health secretary Alan Milburn acknowledged both the imperfections of the current performance assessment framework and the resource pressures on social services departments during a meeting with local government leaders last week.

Head of social affairs, health and housing at the Local Government Association, John Ransford, said Milburn had also requested more information on pressures in children's services.

Ransford said the LGA regarded the £300m special grant to tackle delayed discharge this winter as "a start", but that there were "many other cost pressures, particularly in child care".

The meeting looked at ways in which central and local government could work closer together.

"We all agreed that we need far more comprehensive and reliable measures to look at the way in which social services are performing across the board," Ransford added.

Milburn told Ransford he felt his decision to name poorly performing social services departments last month had been a "useful contribution" to the performance assessment debate, and had succeeded in raising its profile.