Islington Social Services getting better - Official (Islington Liberal Democrats)

Islington Liberal Democrats <Islington_ld@cix.co.uk>

Islington Social Services getting better - Official

January 10, 2002 12:00 AM

Government inspectors will next week confirm that under the Liberal Democrats Islingtonís Social Services have improved greatly. They say Social Services have ìmade rapid progress in the last two or three years, demonstrating an ability to respond quickly and effectively to address service weaknessesî, and go on to say ìThe extent of recent change represents a very significant achievement.î They judge that ìThe Authority does have a clear visionî, and their overall conclusion is that ìIslington is improving its social services.î On Childrenís services they said: ìServices for children and families are improvingÖa number of new initiatives have been developed or are planned and there is evidence that these are having a positive impact.î On Older People they said: ìIslington is actively promoting national agendas for older people and mental health users. Very significant changes have been and are being made to service provision and these are likely to promote better outcomes. ì On user involvement: Social Services are ìgetting better at enabling service users and carers to have a more powerful voice in deciding what future services should look like.î On financial management - famously bad in the past: ìThe inherited financial deficits have been tackled.î The inspectors recognised that there are still some problems, and still more for the Council to do. But they recognised that when the Liberal Democrats took over control of the Council to years ago, they had to ìstart from an extremely low baseî, and that ìIslington has a poor legacyî. The inspectors made it clear that in the past - under thirty years of Labour control - there had been very poor leadership. They said they are optimistic that the rapid improvement will continue, but only ìso long as there is continuing commitment and sound leadershipî. Cllr Douglas Taylor said ìIslington Social Services are getting better under the Liberal Democrats - itís official. The Labour Party failed to provide leadership or strategic direction. They gave Social Services low priority, and constantly made cuts to frontline services. ìThe inspectors recognise that under Liberal Democrat leadership the Social Services team has a clear vision, and is ensuring an increasingly good service. ìFor example, when the Lib Dems took control we discovered a hidden annual budget deficit of £5? million. We dealt with that and have gone to tackle many of the other problems the department had. We have been working hard to improve services, often in difficult circumstances. It is satisfying to have this recognised by the Joint Review process, which is a very thorough and detailed review of the whole Social Services department. ìBut our real aim is to improve the services to our users. Many of them are already feeling the effect of the improvements we have made. ìThere is more still to do but we have turned the service round - Islington can now be proud of its Social Services.î