Social care stars do not shine for all

Two councils with two-star social services departments have been
rated as “poor” under the first updated Audit Commission
comprehensive performance assessment results, unveiled this week.

Despite last month’s Social Services Inspectorate star ratings
judging Kingston-upon Hull and Hackney Councils as serving most
adults and children well, both have been placed in the lowest
category under the CPA’s five category marking system for all
council services thanks to weaknesses elsewhere.

Since its introduction last year, there have been concerns CPA
ratings could unfairly tag all council services as failing. This
could have knock-on effects for staff morale and public confidence
in services.

Overall, the new scores reveal an upward trend in performance
across the 150 English councils, with 26 rated as excellent (22 in
2002), 56 as good (54), 40 as fair (40), 18 as weak (21) and 10 as
poor (13).

East Sussex Council and Windsor and Maidenhead Council jumped two
categories – weak to good – after improvements in social
care. 

– For a full list of CPA scores go to www.audit-commission.gov.uk/CPA