A COUNCIL party leader has called for the county to make education its 'top priority' after the council was issued with an improvement notice.

Gloucestershire County Council was formally issued with the improvement notice earlier this month, after being judged 'inadequate' by Ofsted.

The council was forewarned about the notice back in May, which Liberal Democrat leader in Gloucestershire Cllr Paul Hodgkinson described as 'embarrassingly bad.'

Cllr Hodgkinson said: "The notice underlines the gravity of the situation facing the Council.

"It states clearly that improvement has to be made otherwise Ministers will intervene and take control of the situation themselves.”

"The OFSTED report was embarrassingly bad for the Council’s administration and now the top priority has to be about making sure children in Gloucestershire are safe.”

"As the Council’s main opposition group the Liberal Democrats will scrutinise if and how improvements are being made to address the deep seated issues which OFSTED uncovered.

"Trust in the council’s management and processes have gone and that trust now has to be rebuilt in a very visible way.

“The message from the Government to Gloucestershire is clear – get your act together in protecting the county’s most vulnerable otherwise we will intervene and do it ourselves.”

The notice states that the secretary of state has appointed an advisor to the council until it is no longer required.

A record of progress is also required by the government as well as the content of the improvement plan.

An improvement board with an independent chairman has also been put in place to oversee implementation of the plan.

Cllr Richard Boyles, cabinet member for children and young people at Gloucestershire County Council, said: “This improvement notice was announced by the Department for Education back in May.

“Since then, councillors from all parties on the council have agreed to work together to improve services for children and young people in Gloucestershire.

"We continue to work very closely with the Department for Education, Ofsted and the Local Government Association to deal with all the areas that Ofsted judged to be inadequate or in need of improvement.

“We’re making progress but we know there is still a lot of hard work ahead.”