Wiltshire county council given three-star rating (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Wiltshire county council given three-star rating

12:01pm Thursday 7th February 2008 in News

Wiltshire County Council has been rated as a three-star authority by a local government watchdog.

The Audit Commission today published the county council's annual Corporate Performance Assessment (CPA).

The watchdog concluded the overall quality of services in 2007 was good, giving it a three-star rating and that the council was improving adequately.

The council was rated as providing excellent environmental services, good cultural services, making good use of money, and providing adequate adult social care and services for children and young people.

In 2006 the county council was given an overall CPA assessment of excellent and improving adequately.

The change in star rating was due to lower ratings in 2007 for adult social service and services for children and young people.

The county council faced significant budgetary pressures in adult social care in 2006/07 and changes were made to the way services for children and young people were assessed.

During the past year the county council has been undertaking a wide range of service modernisations to the way social care is provided.

These include the launch of the reablement service to help and support people leaving hospital, the creation of a care service hotline and modernising the meals on wheels service.

Since the services for children and young people were inspected, subsequent Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 4 results for 2007 show the county is performing well.

County council leader Jane Scott said: "We are committed to providing high quality services at an affordable price to people in Wiltshire.

"I am pleased this assessment shows we deliver good value for money for the services we provide to local communities.

"It is always disappointing when your star rating changes, but we faced some very difficult issues in 2006/2007 and I believe the steps we are taking, particularly in adult social care, will mean our services will continue to improve."