Mr R Mattocks, Director of Social Services

Hampshire County Council

The Castle

Winchester

Hampshire

SO23 8UQ

26 October 2005

Dear Ms Mattocks, APPENDIX A

CONFIDENTIAL: EMBARGOED UNTIL 1 DECEMBER 2005

Performance Ratings for Social Services: December 2005

I am writing to inform you of the confirmed performance ratings for your council's social services. The adult social care judgement contributes to the comprehensive performance assessment for all local government services, along with the children's services rating undertaken jointly by CSCI and Ofsted.

a) Judgements and Rating

The judgements and rating for your council are as follows:

Social Care Services for children

Serving Most people well with Excellent capacity for improvement.

Social Care Services for adults

Serving Most people well with Promising capacity for improvement.

Social Care Star Rating

Your social services performance rating is 2 star.

As a result of our internal moderation process, the judgments above may differ from the provisional judgments sent to you during the last month. If you require any further information please contact your BRM, Sara Goodinge, who will be pleased to discuss the detail with you.

b) Context

The star ratings range from zero to three stars. The categories for "serving people well?" are no, some, most and yes. These relate to the 4 descriptors agreed by the Local Services Inspectorate Forum. The categories for "capacity for improvement?" are poor, uncertain, promising and excellent.

Social Care judgements use CSCI's descriptors as follows:

The final decisions on star ratings were made by the Chief Inspector.

The Children's Services APA letter sent separately by Ofsted summarises the joint CSCI/Ofsted assessment of the council's contribution to children and young people's services and includes the related assessments of Education and Children's social care services.

For Adult social care, the record of performance assessment was sent to you following the annual review meeting earlier this year. This sets out the context and summarises separately the performance of social care services for adults. Improvements since the last review are detailed, as are the priorities for further improvement that were discussed and agreed.

c) Evidence

In assessing performance for adult social care, CSCI reaches judgements about performance against a set of standards and criteria, drawing on evidence from a number of standard sources. Further details are set out in CSCI's Operating Policies available at:

http://www.csci.org.uk/council_performance/paf/operating_policies.htm

The sources include:

· The published PAF performance indicators and other statistical data up to 2004-05, plus data supporting planned targets for 2005-06.

· Monitoring information from the Delivery and Improvement Statement.

· The reports of CSCI inspections and inspections conducted jointly with other inspectorates, where applicable

Equivalent arrangements apply for the assessment of children's services and children's social care - at the Ofsted website link:

http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/childrenandyoungpeople/

d) Further Changes to Star Ratings

Current CSCI policy on star ratings is that they will be published each year, and for the most part will not be changed during the year. For councils with a zero star rating, a higher rating may be awarded later if robust and substantial evidence of performance improvement becomes available. Conversely, if serious concerns about performance arise during the year, a council's rating may be adjusted to zero stars, and special monitoring arrangements put in place.

e) Further Information and Publication

The new performance ratings and underlying judgements will be published on Thursday 1 December. The record of performance assessment for your council and a copy of this letter will also be available on the CSCI website on 1 December 2005 at

http://www.csci.org.uk/council_perfomance/star_ratings/

You will be sent an e-mail containing the embargoed star ratings for all councils on Tuesday 29 November 2005. Both this letter and the e-mail setting out the star ratings for all councils are sent to give you time to prepare local briefings - for example, to handle press enquiries. If you require help or advice on dealing with the media, CSCI press officers, Andy Keast-Marriott, Michelle Doyle, Sharon Ward and Ray Veasey are available to assist. Their contact numbers are 0207 979 2090/2089/2094/2093.

Any questions about your star rating that are not answered by the guidance, including the guidance on Children's Services APA published by Ofsted, or by the contents of this letter or the APA letter with their associated attachments should be addressed in the first instance to me or to Sara Goodinge (BRM).

Access to the Performance Indicators website for councils which is password protected will be issued on 29 November 2005 with guidance details.

f) Representations

The letter and accompanying guidance issued to councils by David Behan, Chief Inspector on 12 September 2005 (letter CSCI - CI(2005) 6) explained the introduction of a Representations procedure for our judgements. This indicated that you would have the opportunity at this stage to make a formal representation. The procedures for representations are available at www.csci.gov.uk

The Representations Office will be dealing with these matters from

26 October 2005. In the interim, matters that are subject to ongoing discussion should continue to be dealt with at a regional level with Sara Goodinge (BRM).

All notifications of intent to make representation should be made by Friday 28 October 2005 at 4pm and actual written representations should be sent to CSCI for the attention of Louise Guss ([email protected]) Representations Officer by Wednesday

2 November 2005 at 4pm or alternatively Jenny Wright ([email protected]) Business Services Senior Administrator at the Representations Office (contact details below).

CSCI

St Nicholas Building

St Nicholas Street

Newcastle upon Tyne

NE1 1NB Fax number: 01484 770 420

A panel of senior CSCI managers and external experts will consider your case. It will make a recommendation to the Chief Inspector about whether the case made by the council requires a change to a judgement.

Yours sincerely

Amanda Sherlock

Regional Director,

CSCI - South East

cc Mr P Robertson, Chief Executive, Hampshire County Council