Social Services ‘back from the brink’

Sep 6 2007 by Jessica Shaughnessy, Liverpool Daily Post

A SERVICE for vulnerable people condemned by a Government watchdog two years ago is clawing its way back from the brink, Liverpool council insisted last night.

The City’s Supporting People Programme has now been rated “fair” by inspectors with “excellent prospects for improvement”.

Director for social services Tony Hunter heralded the rating as a radical improvement from the damning criticisms it received in 2005.

Then the service, which supports the elderly, homeless people, refugees, women escaping domestic violence and young people leaving care was given a no-star rating and was branded “poor” with “uncertain prospects for improvement”.

Inspectors criticised managers for failing to administer the £42m annual budget properly.

They also likened the services in hostels for homeless people to “the workhouses of the 1910s”.