Overall North East Lincs was given 2 points out of 4 (the lowest being 1 and the highest being 4). The Audit Commission picked out one area for praise - education, employment or training for 16 to 18 year olds. It picked out two areas for criticism - Child Health Inequalities and Unsafe and Unhealthy housing. Some of their comments about Child Health Inequalities Housing are set out below.

Child Inequalities

"Too many children in North East Lincolnshire are in poor health and not enough has been done to improve it. In particular, too many children are overweight and far too many young girls are getting pregnant. Council partners are now working together to try to make improvements but these problems have been around for a long time and effective action has been slow in coming."

"Far more teenage girls are getting pregnant in North East Lincolnshire than the average for the region and the country as a whole. This situation has shown very little improvement since 1998 when the figure was 70 per 1000....... It is now 64 per 1000, nowhere near achieving the national target of 35 per 1000 by 2010. High rates of teenage pregnancy mean lower educational levels, more poverty and poorer quality of life."

"Too many children are overweight. Here too, improvements aren't being made fast enough. In 2007/8, 19.6% of year 6 schoolchildren were overweight, and this figure only fell to 18.7% by 2008/9. Meanwhile, the problem with younger children actually got worse.

"In June 2008, Children's services transferred from the Care Trust Plus to the Council. A Heavy Weight Co-ordinator was appointed in June 2009. The Council is one of five to have been selected to be part of an improvement Foundation to reduce obesity through better engagement with communities and NHS staff. This will specifically target Nunsthorpe and East Marsh where levels of obesity are high."

Unsafe and unhealthy housing

"The quality of housing and most housing services is improving slowly, but services to vulnerable people, including those who are homeless, are poor and not improving fast enough, despite involvement from a number of external agencies over the past five years.

"Vulnerable people in the area are not able to get housing related support to help them find and keep a home. The Council has not carried out work to understand the needs of vulnerable people and so is not in a position to work with partners in health, social care and probation to make sure that services are put in place.".....................

"The inspectorates and local partnership are discussing how best to make the improvements needed."