Bracknell

Bracknell Forest Borough Council's adult and children's services has been awarded a two star score following a recent Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI).

The Bracknell Council has improved its rating from last year's one star after the Commission found the adult social care services to be "serving some people well" and the children's services to be "serving most people well". Both services are judged to have "promising capacity for improvement" which means there are good systems in place to continue to improve services.

The rating was published today (Thursday December 1) by CSCI, as it announced the results for councils across the country, ranging from zero star for poorer performers to three stars for the top performers.

The CSCI inspectors complimented Bracknell Council's good partnership work especially with the Primary Care Trust. The inspectors also said there is good access to services with the Council's 24 hour emergency call centre Forestcare.

Both adult and children's services were inspected to make up the overall two star rating for two areas. The first is how well it serves people now and the second is the capacity for improvement to services. Both Bracknell adult and children's services were scored across a number of areas including:

Bracknell Adult services:-

* National priorities and strategic objectives;
* Cost and efficiency;
* Effectiveness of service delivery and outcomes;
* Quality of services for users and carers;
* Fair Access.

Bracknell Children's services:-

* Being healthy;
* Staying safe;
* Enjoying and achieving;
* Making a positive contribution;
* Achieving economic well being.

Bracknell Cllr Dale Birch, Executive Member for Adult Services, Health Commissioning and Housing at Bracknell Forest Borough Council, said: "Our staff work tirelessly to ensure we have good performing services and management of these services is consistently strong.

"Despite poor funding from the Government, in the past year we have introduced a home dementia service to enable people with dementia symptoms to continue to live at home. The work of the Drug and Alcohol Action Team (DAAT) led to the opening of the groundbreaking New Hope centre, which offers support and advice for those with substance misuse issues. We have also established good infrastructure to deliver services widely. The star rating also reflects the excellent intermediate care at the Bridgewell Centre, Bracknell and high quality short breaks and residential care at Heathlands.

"However, we are not complacent and are striving to deliver the best service to our residents which is what they expect and deserve. The Commission has highlighted that we need to ensure services are accessible to all users and that we continue to promote independence to enable people to continue to live at home."

Bracknell Education, Children's Services and Libraries continues to be rated two star and CSCI commented on good performance in children's services including education for looked after children and participation and successes in education.

Levels of first time offenders is low and the rates of re-offending have reduced whilst the number of young people participating in education is high.

Monitoring of services for Bracknell children and young people in residential and foster care is good.

Cllr Dr Gareth Barnard, Executive Member for Children's Services at Bracknell Forest Borough Council, said: "Children's services are very important to Bracknell Forest Borough Council so that we can have a positive impact on young people's developing lives.

"We are focused on promoting healthy living and keeping everyone in the community safe. A high percentage of our schools are involved in the National Healthy Schools Standard which promotes healthy eating and sports activity.

"We are also enjoying the success of local young people - there are rising trends in exam results and we are fourth in the country in the annual schools survey. We want to build on this and are supporting young people and have seen an increase in the use of the youth services."

Bracknell Forest Borough Council ~1 December 2005