Birmingham was judged "inadequate" for safeguarding in its annual Ofsted inspection in December. In January the government served the council with an improvement notice expecting significant improvements within the year.
Halfway through the improvement period, children's minister Dawn Primarolo has written to the authority acknowledging "good progress" and a "cultural shift" in social care. But she also said there is still "some way to go" in certain areas.
Primarolo also indicated that the government would consider providing additional funding to the council for the remaining six months of the improvement period.
She said: "The department would not be able to wholly fund this work, but in principle I would be willing to provide a contribution towards work carried out in the remainder of the improvement notice period."
Les Lawrence, Birmingham's cabinet member for children, young people and families, said: "I welcome the minister's acknowledgement of our progress and we are pulling out all the stops to ensure that we hit our targets in all areas.
"We have set our sights on delivering a gold standard service for the people of Birmingham and are putting in place arrangements that will deliver this."
