OFSTED inspectors branded Sandwell Council’s child protection service as inadequate in a damning report today.

The scathing report, which the News predicted in an exclusive story last month revealing director Helen Smith had been suspended, has forced the leader of the council Councillor Darren Cooper to apologise to vulnerable children in the authority’s care.

He said: "I am devastated we have let down vulnerable children and I apologise to them.

"It is totally unacceptable that we have taken a backward step.

"I will not tolerate it and I have taken swift action, and a director of the council has left by mutual consent.”

He added: "We knew there were deep-seated problems and we had to do something radical and that's why last year we signed up private sector partner Impower to help improve Children's Services.”

The watchdog made an unannounced inspection in February and uncovered failings in overall effectiveness, help and protection for young people, quality of practice, and leadership and governance.

Cllr Cooper promised an improvement in the underfire Children’s Services department.

He said: "We are already recruiting more permanent social workers at all levels to provide some stability to Children's Services.

"We have taken immediate steps to improve work between social workers and police and have checked that in all the cases Ofsted reviewed every child is safe from harm.

"People say Ofsted's inspections are a lot tougher these days and more councils are going to be judged inadequate. Child protection referrals are also up.

"But I won't make any excuses. We have big problems and we are going to fix them."

Dr Jenifer Harding, the new chair of the Sandwell Safeguarding Children Board, also promised to work towards better care of children.

She said: "Ofsted rightly criticised the board for failing to fulfil its duty to promote effective working between organisations involved in child protection.

"As a new chair I am determined the board will do better and work has already begun on getting a new structure in place which is fit for purpose."

Before the inspection the council was already aware of serious problems and had reported to the Department for Education it viewed its child protection service as inadequate.

Chris Spencer, chair of the Improvement Board, said: "This is a very disappointing but not unexpected report.

"I told the Department for Education in January there was a lot of work to be done before we could reassure people child protection in Sandwell is fit for purpose.

"The pace of change was not maintained and progress slowed following leadership changes with the departure of senior managers in the summer, leaving the council with limited capacity for improvement.”

In the News original story a council insider said: “The Ofsted report will be terrible news for the council, especially as we were led to believe the department had turned the corner.

“If the report is as bad as everyone is expecting, and it must be if the director has been suspended, then Cllr Badham’s position is untenable.

“He is a dead man walking, after all as a council if we cannot look after vulnerable children, what can we do?"

The Ofsted report is available at www.ofsted.gov.uk/local-authorities/sandwell.