Social services fail to save ‘poor’ authorities

Two councils with two-star social services departments have been
rated as ‘poor’ under the first updated Audit
Commission comprehensive performance assessment results,
writes Derren Hayes.

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 due to weaknesses elsewhere.

Since its introduction last year, there have been concerns CPA
ratings could unfairly tag all council services as failing when it
might only be one part in trouble. 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).

Best performances go to East Sussex Council and Windsor and
Maidenhead Council for jumping two categories – weak to good
– after particular improvements in social care.

A full list of CPA scores