That's the view of the national Audit Commission which has awarded East Sussex County Council a ‘four-star' rating – the best available – for the Council's overall performance in 2008/09.
The independent council watchdog praised the County Council for providing good services and good value for money in the assessment which rates all councils in the UK.
Council Leader Peter Jones said he was delighted with the news. “We have now been given official confirmation that the County Council is one of the best performing local authorities in the UK. This is a stunning result and proof that we are delivering on our promise to residents. It's been a long journey and an enormous effort from our senior management, staff and councillors and I would like to thank them all for their hard work and determination.
“However, we are not complacent and there are areas where we need to improve further. We will be working even more closely with our partners in our local communities to achieve this and to continue to provide the quality services that residents want and need.”
In its report on East Sussex County Council, the Audit Commission said:
- The Council provides good value for money and good services.
- The Council scored top marks for the way it manages its finances and resources and top marks for its transport, waste management and Trading Standards services.
- Children's Services were rated the best in the South East and scored the highest for any County Council in the country and Adult Social Care services, which have improved significantly in the last year, were also praised.
- The Council's approach to partnership working was seen as a strength.
The County Council is also judged to be ‘improving well' in the Audit Commission ‘Direction of Travel' statement which draws together information from a variety of inspections and gives an overview of current performance and the prospect of performance continuing to improve in the future.
For more information about the Council's performance, visit our web pages about Monitoring our performance.
Reference:
2328
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