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Press release: Local authority children's services and social care are improving

But the most vulnerable children still get a raw deal

The Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) and the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) have published the second round of annual performance assessments (APA) for 102 local authorities today.

This year 86 authorities were found to provide good or better services for children and young people. Seventy-five were judged as good or better for the social care they offer and 91 were judged good or better on their capacity to improve.

Annual performance assessments, which are carried out jointly by Ofsted and the Commission for Social Care Inspection, judge authorities on their contribution to improving services for children and young people, the social care services they provide and their capacity to improve.

Seven local authorities - Camden, Gloucestershire, Knowsley, Shropshire, Wandsworth, Worcestershire and Tower Hamlets - achieved the highest grades of outstanding in all categories.

Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools, Christine Gilbert, said:

"We saw many strengths emerging across a number of authorities and I would like to congratulate those authorities who have worked hard to improve the services they provide for children and young people.

"However, more than 5% of looked after children did not have a named social worker in 2005/6. This is an improvement on 2004/5, when it was 6.6%, but a poorer performance than 2003/04 when the average was 2.7%. The educational attainment of looked after children is still a long way short of the level achieved by all children, and is improving only slowly.

"It is not acceptable that in 2004/05 less than 10% of young people in care achieved five or more GCSEs at grade A*-C compared with a national figure of 57.1%. I am pleased to see that the government is making this such a high priority through the children in care green paper."

CSCI's Chief Inspector, Paul Snell, added:

"CSCI and Ofsted continue to work together, recognising when local authorities are performing well, but also making sure poorly performing authorities are closely monitored. Throughout this time of transition, we will make sure they have action plans in place and place a high priority on improving services for children and young people."

Local authorities have made progress in strengthening child protection work. On average child protection reviews are being undertaken on time in 99% of cases. There has also been a reduction, in the majority of authorities, in the number of looked after children who have three or more placement changes in a year.

In a third of councils, less than 50% of looked after children left school with a single GCSE at grade A*-G or a GNVQ. On average, less than one in ten young people in care achieved five or more GCSEs at grade A*-C or a GNVQ, a rise of less than one per cent over the past three years. There has been no reduction in the proportion of looked after children who missed 25 or more days of schooling.

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Notes For Editors

1. The new APA letters for 102 of England’s 150 local authorities can be found on our website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

2. For education functions the information and data reflect performance in the 2004/2005 school year and for social care functions the data and information reflect the 2005/2006 financial year. Further details about this can be found in the document Arrangements for the annual performance assessment of children's services 2006.

3. For each local authority, last year’s APA letter can be found beneath the 2006 letter.

4. The overarching grade for children's services covers an authority’s work to secure the well-being of children across all services and in all five of the Every Child Matters outcomes. The work of a range of services that the authority directly delivers or contributes to are covered, including education, social care, school improvement, mental health services, services to support children out of school, Traveller education services, aspects of early years, drug education, sexual health education, support for teenage mothers, support for looked after children, support for children with learning difficulties and/or disabilities, and many others.

5. Ofsted is required this year, for the final year, by legislation to disaggregate the grade for social care and report this separately. This is explained in Arrangements for the annual performance assessment of children’s services 2006.

6. Forty eight of England’s 150 local authorities have not been given an APA letter today. For forty six authorities this is because they are currently, or imminently, in the process of undergoing a joint area review. Once their grades have been determined, these will be used for the Audit Commission’s Comprehensive Performance Assessment in February 2007. The APA for the remaining two authorities is delayed as a result of earlier joint area review procedures.

7. For any questions relating to the social care judgements please contact the CSCI press office on 020 7979 2093. All other enquiries should be made to the Ofsted press office on 020 7421 6622.

8. Ofsted is a non-ministerial government department established under the Education (Schools) Act 1992 to take responsibility for the inspection of all schools in England. Its role also includes the inspection of further education, local authority children’s services, teacher training institutions and some independent schools. During 2001, Ofsted became responsible for inspecting all 16-19 education and for the regulation of early years childcare, including childminders.

9. The CSCI is the single inspectorate for social care in England, responsible for regulating and inspecting all social care providers - whether in the public or independent sector, and for assessing the performance of local councils in delivering their personal social services functions. More information on CSCI can be found at the Commission’s website at www.csci.org.uk.

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