The city's elected mayor, Mark Meredith, said that following his discussions with Government ministers, the DfES team would help accelerate the process of improving the council's social care and education services.
He said, 'The council has already appointed a new dynamic council manager and we are determined to provide the leadership necessary to make the change.'
In the annual performance assessment carried out jointly by Ofsted and the Commission for Social Care Inspection, Bristol City Council also received the lowest rating - grade 1 - for its children's services. The grade indicates 'a service that does not deliver minimum requirements for children and young people, is not cost-effective, and makes little or no contribution to wider outcomes for the community'.
In 102 assessments, 86 local authorities were found to provide good or better services for children and young people; 75 were judged good or better for their social care; and 91 were good or better on their capacity to improve. Seven - Camden, Gloucestershire, Knowsley, Shropshire, Tower Hamlets, Wandsworth and Worcestershire - achieved the highest grade of outstanding in all categories.
Liz Nicholson, corporate director for Children and Young People's Services in Shropshire, said, 'The county council was an early mover in setting up an integrated directorate covering all services for children, in creating multi-agency family support teams, and in bringing in many other innovative practices.'
Councillor Jos Clark, executive member for children at Bristol council, argued that its poor rating was based on a previous inspection last year 'before we completed our recent restructuring of the Children and Young People's Services Directorate and before the significant progress we have made in this year's SATs tests and GCSE exam results'.
He added that publishing 'yet another league table based on our historic performance' was 'not helpful and can only hinder the speed of our progress'.
