17/12/2008 - Cumbria County Council's Children's Services - Annual Performance Assessment : Cumbria County Council

Cumbria County Council’s Children’s Services directorate has been praised for its prompt work in dealing with child protection cases.

The annual independent Ofsted Annual Performance Assessment released today (December 17) says that timelines of reviews for child protection cases are ‘very good’ and noted sustained improvements in the area of safeguarding children.

The report also noted a strong performance in the area of looked after children, saying:
"Personal Action Plans for looked after children are recognised nationally as an example of best practice. The strong focus on family placements leads to a high rate of stability for looked after children and standards of provision in the council's children's homes are good."

Ofsted inspectors also praised the children’s services leadership and management team for providing a clear strategic direction. They said the above average standards reached by 11-year olds and the implementation of the government’s 14 to 19 reforms were particular strengths.

The Annual Performance Assessment (APA) inspects six areas in children’s services for the year up to April 2008. Each area is graded from 1 to 4 (1=inadequate, 2=adequate, 3=good, 4=outstanding/excellent).

All of Cumbria's six areas are either 'adequate' or 'good' - despite an assessment regime which has generally been acknowledged as the harshest yet , with 53 (including Cumbria) out of 150 local authorities appealing against this year's overall APA rating.

Cumbria's ratings are as follows:
Being Healthy (2)
Staying Safe (3)
Enjoying and achieving (2)
Making a positive contribution (3)
Achieving economic well-being (3)
Capacity to improve, including management of service for children and young people (2)

The overall effectiveness of children’s services was graded 2 and is therefore seen as ‘adequate.’ This is one grade down from 2007's score of 3.

Cumbria County Council appealed against the rating because it felt that it did not reflect the overall improvements that have been made in the directorate in the year up to April 2008. In terms of the number of specific targets that Cumbria County Council has improved on in the 12 months, Cumbria ranked 20th highest out of 150 councils.

The report did, however, highlight certain challenges which remain, including improving standards and attendance in secondary education; improving the quality of provision for some vulnerable youngsters in pupil referral units; and improving the levels of alcohol and substance misuse for some young people.

Moira Swann, Corporate Director for Children’s Services, said:

“No-one is more frustrated at this result than me. There are significant differences between how the Audit Commission sees us in terms of how we are improving on specific performance indicators and how it rates us overall in the Annual Performance Assessment. We feel we have continued to improve across all five of the outcomes for children and young people, and we had hoped this would be reflected in this year’s report. This is disheartening for staff to read and the result is not a true reflection of how Children’s Services in Cumbria is operating.

"Councils all over the country are feeling similarly frustrated. It is a challenging time for Children’s Services nationally and we remain committed to ensuring that the children, young people and their families in Cumbria receive the best quality services.”

Full APA report can be viewed via the Ofsted website from 1000 http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/

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