A TOP politician is calling for social services to be taken out of county council hands amid claims the authority is “incapable” of running them.

Mayor of Copeland Mike Starkie believes Adult Social Care and Children’s Services should become part of an “integrated health service” delivered through the NHS and the voluntary sector – a move that would see the council stripped of its current responsibilities.

His comments follow what he described as a “long line of failure” from the authority, and in the midst of the fall-out from the cabinet’s controversial decision to award several major care contracts to organisations based outside of Cumbria.

The independent politician’s claims have been strongly denied by the cabinet member for children’s services who insisted that council has shown a “strong track record of improvement”.

Mr Starkie’s broadside has been sparked by a controversial shake-up of children’s services agreed by the county council cabinet earlier this month, a decision which is set to be “called in” by concerned councillors.

Under the changes, service-provider Barnardo’s – previously responsible for Allerdale, Carlisle, South Lakes and Eden – has been left only with Eden.

Particularly controversial has been news that national charity Family Action, headquartered in London, is set to be parachuted in to take over Copeland’s Howgill Centre, a much-loved institution within the borough.

Mr Starkie claims the county council has a “track record of failure” in this area and wants to see these responsibilities transferred to the NHS as part of a “fully integrated health and social care service”.

Mr Starkie was also responding to “significant concerns” raised earlier this year about Cumbria’s ability to meet the need of children with special educational needs and disabilities.

A joint inspection report published by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission meant that a Written Statement of Action was required setting out how the council proposed to address the issues they had identified.

The report stated that the impact of special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) reforms in Cumbria was “highly variable” and that the area had been too slow to implement the reforms set out in the Children and Families Act.

Mr Starkie said the council’s decision to award the contract for the Howgill to a London-based charity had “reinforced” his belief that that local government in Cumbria “needs to be reformed” and “Cumbria County Council abolished”.

He wants to see the county council scrapped and replaced with a combined authority made up of all the district councils under an elected mayor of Cumbria.

Responding to Mayor Starkie’s criticism, Anne Burns, the county council cabinet member responsible for children’s services, insisted that Children’s services across Cumbria “actually has a strong track record of improvement”.

She stressed that Ofsted had recently recognised the authority’s “continued improvement”, adding: “Their latest report was overwhelmingly positive and underlined the huge progress we have made over recent years.

“This is why we are confident that Cumbria County Council continues to be best placed to provide these services as we are committed to, and striving to, put the needs of children and young people first.”