Children's services report confirms how far Islington has come since Labour was given the boot (Islington Liberal Democrats)

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

Children's services report confirms how far Islington has come since Labour was given the boot

January 18, 2010 2:38 PM

Councillors Terry Stacy and Paula Belford at assembly at a local school.

Councillor Terry Stacy and Paula Belford join assembly at a local school.

Islington's services for children have been described as good and improving, in a new report from the Government schools inspectors Ofsted.

The inspector wrote:

"A higher than average proportion of nursery, primary, secondary and special schools and pupil referral units is good or outstanding. No schools are in Ofsted categories of concern", and that "the children's home, the fostering agency, private fostering arrangements and the adoption agency are all good."

This follows record performances at Islington's schools this year. Children in Islington primary schools won their best-ever results in this year's SATs. Pupils taking GCSEs in the borough's secondary schools also beat all past performances. The percentage of students achieving 5 or more GCSE passes at grades A*- C, including both English and mathematics is now at 44.4% - a rise of over 15% in two years. All schools comfortably exceeded the target figure set by the government's Department for Children, Schools and Families.

This contrasts starkly with Labour's performance when they ran the council.

When Ofsted inspected the Education service when Labour ran Islington, they said: "Overall, these are dismal findings, the worst encountered to date in any inspection". "The Council as a whole has many problems, including a large budget deficit," the inspector continued, "from which education is not immune. Not the least of these problems is that, according to the Chief Executive, it has largely lost the confidence of the people it serves. This is especially true of the education service."

Under Labour, according to Ofsted's report at the time, schools "do not receive, effective support from the local authority." Of the Council's school support services they said, "if the local authority were able to do some of them a little less inadequately than it does at present, that would be a major advance." At that time, Islington's education services were chaired by Councillor Phil Kelly - still the Labour councillor for Finsbury Park Ward. The inspector condemned the tendency of local Labour politicians "to oscillate between expressions of support for schools and vilification of them."

Councillor Paula Belford, Islington's Liberal Democrat councillor for children and young people, commented:

"The latest exam results and the new Ofsted inspection results show just how far children's services in Islington have come since the Liberal Democrats took over from Labour.

"We still can't take anything for granted. We've come a long way, but we know we still have a way to go before Islington has the children's services we deserve. The inspector highlighted the need to improve childminding, and we are taking that on board.

"But we know that Labour can't achieve the improvements we still need. Haringey, run by Labour, still has services for young people and schools that are consistently rated as poor and even dangerous. I don't want Islington to suffer the same fate - that's why I'm fighting to keep this council out of Labour's hands."