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Inspection of children's services Cumbria County Council October 2003

The objective of the inspection was to evaluate Cumbria's implementation of national and local objectives relating to the needs of children and young people as well as the quality of outcomes for service users and their carers. The inspection team also considered Cumbria's response to the policy agenda summarised in the White Paper "Modernising social services'. It also included some specific work to validate the Council's recent self-audit of services to children in need following the Climbie report. Evidence collected from a National Care Standards Commission inspection of foster care services, which took place earlier in the year, was used to provide a more informed judgement about the quality of child protection work and family placement services for looked after children. The inspection team while acknowledging that staffing difficulties had had an impact concluded that the Council was not serving children well and that prospects for improvement were poor.