A letter from Timpson to the leader of Sandwell Council Steve Eling states that the authority must draw up plans for children's services to transfer to a trust in less than two months - by 1 December.
The move follows publication of a report by Eleanor Brazil, the government-appointed commissioner of children's services at Sandwell, which concluded that the council, which was subject to three damning Ofsted reports in the space of two years, cannot deliver necessary improvements on its own.
Earlier this year Unison members at the council voted unanimously for a motion calling for an industrial action ballot should any plans for a trust be announced - with Unison joint secretary Tony Barnsley stating that it would be "the first time social workers have gone on strike over a children's trust in the country".
Sandwell Council has said that it made it clear to the Department for Education that it does not believe that the creation of a trust is the best way forward.
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