Milburn confirms resource pressures

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.

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