months to improve or face having social care removed; plans for
improvement bodies also unveiled alongside review of safeguarding
boards. By Jess Brown and Derren Hayes
Just before Christmas, the Prime Minister served notice of the government's intention to take action over "failure" in children's services.
In a speech that provided the detail to months of rhetoric about the need to improve the quality of services for looked-after children, David Cameron said that children's services departments judged "inadequate" by Ofsted would have six months to improve or face intervention, initially with the appointment of an independent commissioner.
If councils still fail to improve, children's social care services will be handed to "high performing local authorities, experts and charities" to run under the trust model already developed in Doncaster and Slough, with Sunderland due to follow. At the same time, children's minister Edward Timpson announced the creation of two improvement initiatives aimed at drawing out and sharing best practice across children's services. He also launched a review of local safeguarding children boards and serious case reviews (see box).
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