The council had vowed not to set up a trust, saying it detracted from the real business of getting front-line workers to collaborate more effectively.
It had been at the forefront of the successful campaign against the green paper's prescriptive proposals on trusts and directors of children's services.
Now the Department for Education and Skills says that councils will be expected to set up children's trusts by 2008 - two years later than originally envisioned. No mention is made of trusts in the Children's Bill - meaning they will not be a statutory requirement.
The council said it had not yet decided to establish a trust in the light of guidance accompanying the Bill stating that trusts do not need to be stand-alone structures with their own staff.
