26 October 2001
The announcement was made by Health Secretary Alan Milburn during a speech to last week's annual social services conference in Harrogate.
Under the new system, to be implemented from next summer, councils will get a performance rating from zero to three stars, based on all available indicators. As with hospitals, the aim is to raise standards by increasing public accountability.
Top performers will be rewarded by a 'lighter touch' inspection regime; freedom to spend their share of a new £50m performance fund how they want, and more control over special grants.
Poor performers will face a series of interventions, ranging from 'special measures' to – in the case of persistently failing departments – being taken out of local authority control.
The health secretary said that although there is excellence in social services, it is spread too thinly. The new star ratings will 'remove the excuse for unacceptable variations in performance,' he said.
Presenting the latest social services performance assessment framework indicators, he put the worst 14 authorities on notice of possible direct intervention. Child protection services and progress on bed-blocking were singled out for criticism.
The Local Government Association and the Association of Directors of Social Services reacted angrily to both the tone and content of Milburn's speech.
Pointing out that 19 out of 24 key performance indicators show clear year-on-year improvements, they found it 'ironic and disappointing' that the health secretary had chosen to highlight a
negative message when the government is meant to be promoting a positive image of social work.
They also questioned whether the data are producing meaningful comparisons between authorities, calling for a 'simple, fair and transparent system of assessing social services performance.'
Some progress is already being made on this, according to chief social services inspector, Denise Platt. She told Public Finance that work is under way between the Department of Health and the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions, to co-ordinate Social Services Inspectorate and Audit Commission inspection criteria with those applied by the performance assessment framework and other indicators.
'We need to be clear about what different inspections do or don't "quality assure", so that they make complementary not competing judgements,' she said.
PFoct2001
