Councillors on Somerset County Council reacted angrily to comments made by the outgoing Somerton & Frome MP, David Heath during a debate on the 'Business of the House' in the House of Commons today.
Somerset County Council Leader, Cllr John Osman said "I find it totally staggering that an MP who voted for cuts of over £100 million funding to key services in the County can stand in the House of Commons and play petty politics with a very important issue regarding child care".
Anger over the comments was also shared by the Cabinet Member for Children & Families, Cllr Frances Nicholson. Cllr Nicholson said, "Mr Heath has made no attempt to engage with us or to find out the true situation in Somerset. He clearly does not understand anything about Children's Social Care in the county. Since the current administration took over at Somerset County Council spending on children's social care has been protected and more than that, it has been increased year on year because our priority is the support and protection of vulnerable people."
Cllr Frances Nicholson continued, "Ofsted has much higher expectations than ever before. We welcome the challenging inspections from Ofsted and we used last year's inspection report to identify the areas where Somerset County Council needed to improve Children's Social Care services. Somerset County Council have set up an improvement board; which will shortly have an independent chair, made an extra £1.7 million available to make progress more rapid and brought in nationally recognised personnel with proven track record at senior level."
"The new leaders are re-energising the workforce, with very clear expectations of how they will work - and the support and training to go with them. Ofsted's report told us they were impressed with the alacrity with which the new leadership had set about the task. Ofsted said that we are doing all the right things but it was too soon to see the results. So we are refocusing our efforts to help and support families as soon as they begin to struggle, not waiting for things to get more difficult for children. Prevention is so much better than cure."
The Council is driving improvements and focusing resources through the 'Children and Young People's Plan' and 'The County Plan'. Both of which received strong backing from Councillors across parties.
Cllr Frances Nicholson concluded "As a service we are looking to raise achievement and aspirations, keep children safe and narrow the gaps in health, wealth, wellbeing, access and education. I hope every elected person in the County can now stop grandstanding and get behind our plan to protect vulnerable children."