Lib Dems pledge to continue improvement

Islington Liberal Democrats have reacted with disappointment to the news that the 'Comprehensive Performance Assessment' carried out on all Councils has rated Islington as 'poor', the lowest of the five categories. Councillor Steve Hitchins, Leader of the Council, said "We do not believe that this is a fair reflection of the major improvements which have been taking place across the Council over the past three years. In fact it flies in the face of all the other Government inspections which have praised Islington's rapid improvement. "The CPA themselves acknowledge that "Islington is one of very few poor Councils that scored highly on its ability to improve". Their inspectors agreed that "overall, strengths outweigh weaknesses", and praised our "clear commitment" to improvement and willingness to tackle difficult problems. They talk of "how far the Council has improved from a very low base in some areas", and agreed with us that "Islington is a council in the process of developing a new way of working"." "But unfortunately the CPA process is designed for Councils which are not changing. It is based mainly on out of date information - for example the inspectors have insisted on using last year's exam results, rather than this year's figures which show a marked improvement. "The CPA is a snapshot of how the Council used to be. They have given a lot of weight to out of date performance information and very little weight to recent improvements and our plans for future improvement. "We have been given legal advice that we would have a strong case for challenging this assessment in the courts. But we don't believe spending taxpayers' money on legal fees would improve services to the people of Islington. Instead we are concentrating on continuing our programme of improvement." The Joint Review of Social Services said we have "made rapid progress in the last two or three yearsÖthe extent of recent change represents a very significant achievement" Education inspectors Ofsted said "The tide has turned in Islington: strong foundations for further progress have been laidÖthere is a forward momentum which is engendering the confidence needed to raise expectation on all fronts" The District Auditor said "Comments from inspectors have been largely positive and they have acknowledged the progress made on service standards in recent years." Councillor Hitchins added "Islington is an authority with a very difficult past legacy, and there are many problems still to be solved. But we are making real progress and do not believe that rating the Council as 'poor' is either fair or helpful in improving the Council." More info Just a few of the many other indications that Islington really is getting better are:

In Education, GCSE results this year rose by more than 5%, and were our best ever. Our Key Stage 2 results (age 11) were among the top ten most improved in the country, with some exceptional results for some schools. We have just today received an outstanding Best Value report on Adult Learning.

In Housing, just last week we received an award for high standards of health and safety, working with our contractor. The previous week we won an award for innovation from the National Home Improvement Council. We are also going to be the first authority in the country to launch a major improvement strategy through PFI.

In Environment, the Audit Commission themselves has assessed our streets as the cleanest streets in London. We are currently rolling out a large number of popular local traffic measures linked to the introduction of the Congestion Charge.

In Social Services, we received a strong Joint Review report earlier this year, and are progressing with plans to completely modernise and update the provision of older people's residential care.

In Regeneration, we have successfully negotiated a major regeneration scheme around the new Arsenal football ground. The Council's imaginative and wide-reaching approach this has been widely praised, including by the Corporate Assessment.

On Crime, the Home Office has just launched a national programme based around the Acceptable Behaviour Contract (ABC) scheme pioneered in Islington, and which was Lib Dem national policy at the General Election.