Have you seen something called the Woking Journal? I have read it and discovered it to be a scurrilous rag masquerading as a newspaper. It is actually published by the Liberal Democrats but they must be so ashamed of it because you have to use a magnifying glass to find this out. Having read the paper I thought the people of Woking might like to read a few things they had left out. I will not be wasting time on the half truths and over the top nonsense, in which this “newspaper” indulges.

 

Childrens’ Service.

It is true that Surrey’s Childrens’ Service was criticised by Ofsted last year for unsatisfactory practices concerning children in care. As a result the officers responsible for the offending department resigned from the County Council. Steps have already been taken to rectify this regrettable problem, however this department is only one of many providing services for children and the results for the other departments were:

 

Education.

Our schools’ performances for all Key Stages and GCSE’s are substantially above the national averages.

 

Fostering.

Our fostering service has been rated by Ofsted as good, approaching excellent.

 

Adoption.

Our adoption service has been rated as good or excellent in all areas.

 

Residential Special Schools.

Seven out of eight residential special schools have been judged outstanding or good by inspectors.

 

Nurseries.

More than three quarters of nurseries inspected in the county between April 2005 and June 2008 have been found to be providing good or excellent education.

 

What this rag did not include is that Ofsted also states “outcomes for children and young people in Surrey with regard to universal services are generally good” and “overall the county council provides value for money”.

 

Of course the county council does more than providing services for children and the following shows how the Audit Commission has assessed our other services by their Continuous Performance Assessment process. These assessments are expressed as a number of stars awarded out of four, plus a few words:

 

Adult Social Care                                                2 stars Adequate performance.

Culture (libraries, night school, etc.)                   3 stars Performing well.

Environment (highways, transport, waste, etc.) 4 stars Performing strongly.

Fire and Rescue                                                    2 stars Adequate performance

Use of Resources                                                  3 stars Performing well.

Corporate Assessment (how the council is run)   3 stars Performing well.