A DAMNING report on social services in Lancashire has been defended by the county council's ruling Labour group and officers who claim it is contradictory and lacks evidence to back up its claims.

Social services director Pauline Oliver says she will not resign and that part of the extra £2.3million included for social services in the 2000/2001 budget will be used to ensure the department meets an action plan to address criticisms.

But Conservatives want consultants to be called in to sort out a list of problems - including the fact that 13 children on the child protection register in March last year did not have an allocated social worker.

Other criticisms in the Audit Commission report were that social workers often do not intervene until situations reach crisis point, despite having the second highest social services budget among similar authorities.

And the authority was told a higher proportion of children in institutional care should be in foster care and that the number of children in Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale on the child protection register accounted for a third of the county's total. County Council leader John West said: "I don't think I've ever read such a contradictory report. There are one line comments which are just not credible. And yet at the back of the report we find in a survey that 74 per cent of people think the service is good or excellent."

Social services chairman Coun Doreen Pollitt claimed things had improved since the inspection in June and July 1999. She said: "The report is not well balanced, there is a lot of good stuff that has not been portrayed fairly. There are too many sweeping statements with no evidence to back them up."

Tory social services spokesman Coun Joyce Stuart said: "There is a strong case for calling consultants in to sort out this sorry mess. It is beyond comprehension that, while millions of pounds have been spent on the service, it should come under such justified criticism today."

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