CUMBRIA County Council's children services have been praised for changes but have been told that the pace of improvements is not quick enough.
Children's Minister Edward Simpson has written to the authority congratulating it on the 'quality and consistency' of its social work across the county, but said improvement was slow, according to Coun Anne Burns, the portfolio holder for the service.
Labour councillor Burns said: "Children are safer, we are listening to the voice of the child but we are not yet there."
Coun Burns explained that the council had recently appointed a new assistant director of children's services John Macilwraith.
Mr Macilwraith replaced Julia Morrison, the £125,000-a-year director of its Childrens Services, which was found by Ofsted to be ‘inadequate' in June 2013. Mrs Morrison was on sick leave for four months and left the authority in March 2014 to ‘pursue interests outside of the county’.
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