Kent Near Bottom of League for Children in its Care (Faversham and Mid Kent Liberal Democrats)

Faversham and Mid Kent Liberal Democrats <info@libdems.org.uk>

Kent Near Bottom of League for Children in its Care

October 31, 2011 2:55 PM
Originally published by Liberal Democrats on Kent County Council

Martin Vye, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Children's Social Services on Kent County Council reacted with concern at the publication today of figures showing the performance of local authorities in looking after children in their care.

Canterbury County Councillor Martin Vye said:

"In 2010, government inspectors judged KCC's care for it's looked after children to be inadequate. A year later it seems little has changed. Kent is near the bottom of the league tables announced today. A large proportion of these vulnerable children are doing much worse in Kent at school than other children, both at the end of primary school, and at GCSE.

"On adoption, Kent ranks joint 110^th out 139 authorities when rating the percentage of children who ceased to be looked after who were adopted, and joint 105^th out of 139 in terms of the percentage of looked after children adopted within 12 months of the decision to go for adoption.

"We councillors are being told about the measures being put in place to improve the service we give to the children that have to be taken into care. These figures show that these efforts need to be redoubled."