Published: Thursday, 20th November, 2008 8:00am

Children's services good 'but caution still needed'

by Judith Green

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COUNCIL officers have been praised after children's services in the borough improved.

Care for children in the Bracknell Forest borough was rated as good or very good in a report.

But officers insist this is not the time to be complacent.

Presenting the report, Chief Officer of Children's Social Care Penny Reuter said: "This is the board's second report and covers a wide range of issues covering all elements of Bracknell Forest's Children Services that now come under one umbrella, from anti-bullying and protection plans to private fostering.

"The department's performance as a whole was rated as good or very good with grade levels four or five, but we are far from complacent and realise there is a lot more work to be done in certain areas."

The findings were revealed as the Local Safeguarding Children Board's annual report was presented at a meeting of Bracknell Forest's Social Care and Learning Overview and Scrutiny Panel on Wednesday last week.

The board was set up following The Children Act in 2004 to make sure the council was meeting its responsibilities in safeguarding children and young people.

Panel members were keen to praise the report's findings but were cautious and said improvement could still be made.

Cllr Colin Dudley said: "While I think it is very good that our children's services are getting grades four or five in their ratings I think we do need to be cautious and remember all the horrible news that has come out in the last couple of days about the Baby P case.

"Haringey Council had been given three and four grade ratings so it just goes to show it can happen to even some of the best performing councils and we constantly need to be on our guard."

Cllr Dudley's sentiments were echoed by the majority of the panel and Mrs Reuter commented that the council had a number of initiatives in place including the cue card scheme.

She added: "We've distributed just over 7,000 of these cue cards which contain basic information on who to contact if you believe a child is being abused.

"They have been given out to schools, medical centres and doctors surgeries and we are planning on rolling out the scheme further later in the year."

Chairman of the panel Cllr Gill Birch concluded the discussion by adding that she thought the Children's Services department deserved praise for putting the report together. She said standards in the borough were high compared to other areas in the country.