Improving social services in Hull have been praised by a Government minister.

As the Hull Daily Mail reported, Hull scored three stars or more in 75 per cent of the categories in the annual national league tables for social services. The performance compared to a 46 per cent return last year.

Now health minister Jacqui Smith has written to Kingston upon Hull City Council confirming the authority's social services as one of the top 20 most improved departments in the country over the past three years.

In her letter, the minister says: "Your rapid improvement is a great achievement."

The rating system ranges from a single star for services judged to be requiring urgent investigation to five stars for "very good" areas of work.

Hull received five-star awards for the stability of children in care, inspections of children's homes and the number of youngsters in foster care or placed for adoption.

The department also saw its record on completing reviews of child protection cases being classed as five star after it was awarded just one star 12 months ago.

Ms Smith suggests Hull's success in bringing about improvements could be used as an example for other councils to follow.
"If we can identify those lessons I would want to share them with others, probably on our website," she adds. Council leader Councillor Ken Branson said: "This is excellent news for the city and the council.

"Every day in Hull thousands of people rely on social services for help and support. The department has clearly made a great leap forward and should be commended for achieving these improvements in a short period of time."

Jan Didrichsen, Hull's director of social services, said: "I am pleased the Government has recognised the progress we have made over the past three years. "A lot of the credit must go to staff, who have worked very hard to bring about these improvements."

Used courtesy of the Hull Daily Mail