Haringey Council statement on 2008 Comprehensive Performance Assessment
Thursday 5 March 2009
New Haringey Council Leader Cllr Claire Kober said:
"Haringey Council's one star rating clearly reflects the serious problems identified with our children's services at the end of last year.
"Our inspection rating for children's services has been reduced to 1 out of 4, because safeguarding children is rated one. Children's Services scores are weighted so that they have a direct effect on the overall CPA score, so we are now graded overall as a 1 out of 4 star council.
"We accept that things went badly wrong with child protection. We are committed to making things right.
"We need to make major changes in this area. We have started that process, and I am determined to drive through the changes needed.
"Our answer to our overall rating will be to improve our children's safeguarding services and maintain and build on our performance in other areas, increasing the pace of our improvement."
In other services Haringey is rated 4 out of 4 for libraries, leisure and recreation services, 3 out of 4 for value for money, and 3 out of 4 for environmental services, adult social care, benefits and housing. The assessment also highlights falling robbery and violence rates, reflecting partnership working with the police.
Cllr Kober, who took over as Leader in December, last week announced a new Quality Outcomes Board, with outside experts in local government, which will work over the coming 12 months to help improve services across the council.
On children's services, the council and partner agencies last week submitted an action plan to Government, setting out a number of key changes:
- Closer working between social workers, police officers and health staff;
- Recruiting and developing top quality staff;
- Putting more resources into safeguarding;
- Improving systems and procedures;
- Strengthening the managerial and political supervision of the system, including setting up a Children's Trust; and
- A stronger, more robust Local Safeguarding Children Board with independent chairperson.
Notes
Local authority Comprehensive Performance Assessment scorecards for 2008 were published by local government watchdog the Audit Commission this week. The assessment rates council performance from 1 to 4 in key areas (4 performing strongly, 3 performing well, 2 adequate and 1 inadequate). Children's services and adult care services are given additional weighting when overall scores are produced. Haringey's scores are as follows:
| Performance area | Rating |
|---|---|
| Overall performance | 1 star |
| Financial management and value for money | 3 out of 4 rating |
| Cultural services (libraries, leisure) | 4 out of 4 rating |
| Environmental services | 3 out of 4 rating |
| Adult social care | 3 out of 4 rating |
| Housing | 3 out of 4 rating |
| Benefits services | 3 out of 4 rating |
| Children's services | 1 out of 4 rating |
The Quality Outcomes Board will include Darra Singh, chief executive at Ealing, Jules Pipe, Mayor of Hackney, and Anne Marie Carrie, director of children's services at Kensington and Chelsea, plus experts in housing and from the local government Improvement and Development Agency, and representatives from DCSF and Government Office for London.
The Board will start work in March. It is sponsored by Capital Ambition, the improvement and efficiency arm of London Councils, which works with authorities in the capital on service improvement.
The rating for the children's service is based on the annual performance assessment published by Ofsted in December, which awarded grades from 1 to 4 across six performance areas as follows:
| Performance area | Rating |
|---|---|
| Enjoying and achieving, including student attainment | 3 |
| Making a positive contribution, including young people's participation in decision-making and reducing juvenile-offending rates | 2 |
| Achieving economic well-being, including staying-on rates and 16-19 achievement | 2 |
| Staying safe, covering child protection and safeguarding | 1 |
| Being healthy, including work on child health and teenage pregnancy | 1 |
| Capacity to improve | 1 |
| Overall effectiveness | 1 |
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