The council has vowed to 'work its socks off' to improve ratings

Ann Windiate, director of health and community services, said the loss of one star reflected a year when the service was overwhelmed with new work.

"We had changed our assessment process and referrals were being taken in directly to family centres," she said.

"It's disappointing. The ratings relate to what happened nearly a year ago."

Medway's social services had recognised in 2003 that the authority was "not reaching out to enough families at an early enough stage", she said.

Of course it's our ambition to get the star back. We are going to work our socks off to do that Ann Windiate

"Referrals were being taken in directly to our family centres from health visitors, schools, anybody who was concerned about a child or their family.

"Inspectors found we were simply getting overwhelmed with the volume of new work.

"We hadn't got the resources to cope."

She said Medway Council was taking advice from Kent County Council, which was given a three-star rating, on how to improve.

"Of course it's our ambition to get the star back," she said.

"We are going to work our socks off to do that."

Regional ratings

Kent County Council was said to be serving most children and adults well and showed "excellent" capacity to improve in both areas.

East Sussex, West Sussex and Surrey were all given two stars.

Inspectors said East Sussex was serving "some" adults and "most" children well, Surrey was serving "most" adults and "some" children well and West Sussex was serving "most" children and adults well.

All three councils showed promising capacity to improve both children's and adults' services.

Brighton and Medway were both given one star and were both serving "some" children and adults well.

Inspectors said Brighton showed promising capacity for improvement in both areas, but Medway showed "uncertain" capacity for improvement of children's services.