Beleagured children's services 'adequate'

ROTHERHAM children’s services have earned an “adequate rating” in the face of a £5.4m deficit.

Ofsted says in its annual assessement that most of the department’s provision helps youngsters do well, enjoy learning and stay safe, with the quality of children’s homes and daycare provision improving.

Juliet Winstanley, divisional manager for Children’s Services Assessment, said  “There has been an improvement in the overall quality of early years and childcare provision.

“The local authority continues to have a very large majority of provision in nursery and primary schools that are good or better for children under the age of five.

“Over the last four years, achievement at the Early Years Foundation Stage has improved at almost twice the rate of improvement found nationally.”

The report also notes that exam results continued to “rise steadily” and five of six special schools are ranked outstanding by inspectors.

Areas for improvement include increasing standards reached by pupils by age 11 and reducing the achievement gap between all pupils and those from low-income families.

The department was given an extra £5.1 million by the council for 2010/11 but is forecasting an overspend of £5.4 million.

Costs of social care, commissioning, staffing, premises, transport and translation have been blamed.