Baby P council worst preforming

The local authority in which Baby Peter died has been named among the country's nine worst-performing children's services - more than double the number rated lowest last year.

Ofsted deemed as "poor" the children's department of the London borough of Haringey along with eight others including Birmingham, Doncaster and Essex in its annual assessments.

The others in the worst performing category - which numbered four authorities last year - are Cornwall, Leeds, Rotherham, Warrington and Wokingham. All have seen recent government intervention.

Haringey and Doncaster - which was subject to a government probe earlier this year after a spate of child deaths - remain on the bottom rung for the second year running.

Ofsted's annual ratings of 152 English authorities - revealed as part of Comprehensive Area Assessments covering a range of public services - found 10 delivered "excellent" services and 93 "good".

The remaining 40 authorities are said to be adequate for a range of areas including child protection, childcare, schools, social care, learning and skills.

The 10 councils rated excellent are Blackburn with Darwen, Camden, City of London, Kensington and Chelsea, Kingston-upon-Thames, Lewisham, Richmond-upon-Thames, Tower Hamlets, Wandsworth and York.
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That compares with three given the comparable top assessment last year.

Chief inspector Christine Gilbert said Ofsted had upped its expectations in terms of the services local authorities should provide.

She told the BBC: "We are considering a wider range of services and outcomes for children and young people, and in that sense we are being more demanding. We are also using more first-hand inspection evidence, gathered by a range of highly knowledgeable and experienced inspectors looking at services and settings, from schools and childcare, to services for vulnerable children, and those for young people in colleges and sixth forms."

i think we all worked that out when this came out about baby Peter.... being that if the council did their jobs properly the poor little bot would still be alive and now in a safe place... this one was tough on me as Kayleigh was the same age as peter.