commissioner.
It was almost a great example of how not to do a reorganisation," says Lord Norman Warner of the "disastrous" 2012 overhaul of Birmingham Council's children's services. A former Labour health minister, he was brought in by the Department for Education last March to be Birmingham's independent children's commissioner with the task of trying to repair the problems in children's services.
Although these didn't start in 2012 - children's services have been rated "inadequate" since 2009 - Warner says the reorganisation "had actually made that worse". "It led to a deterioration of social work practice, particularly with the front door of contacts and referrals when dealing with children at risk," he says.
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