Pete Ruhemann stepped down from his position at a meeting of the council's cabinet on Monday night, following a critical joint area review (JAR) published by Ofsted last week.
The councillor had come under fire from opposition members who were due to take a vote of no confidence next week.
Reading Borough Council was judged as inadequate for safeguarding and was said to have "significant weaknesses" in main areas of child protection.
The JAR follows a critical annual performance assessment last month, which also judged safeguarding in the borough as inadequate.
Following the meeting Ruhemann said: "This is pure, bitter, shoddy politics and I decided there was no point in drawing things out.
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