Ex-home secretary Jacqui Smith to tackle Sandwell child care failings

Ms Smith, who was the first female home secretary and served as MP for Redditch from 1997 until 2010, will chair the board of the borough’s new children’s social care trust.

Plans were announced late last year to introduce an independent trust to run the borough’s children’s social care services.

It followed a six-month review of the services in the wake on an ‘inadequate’ Ofsted ranking last year.

The board aims to ‘drive innovation with effective multi-agency working to make a positive impact on those children most in need of protection and care’.

In recent months, council chiefs said they have worked closely with Commissioner Malcolm Newsam and the Department for Education to agree detailed plans about how the trust will work.

Ms Smith said: “This is a really exciting opportunity to improve the lives of the most vulnerable children and families in Sandwell.

“When life gets tough for children, they deserve the best care and the best people to support them.

"My job is to help build that team by challenging us all to find the best ways to improve and innovate – and by making the trust a great place to work. I am looking forward to working closely with the council and its staff to ensure a smooth transition to the new arrangements.”

Since leaving Parliament in 2010, Ms Smith has chaired the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust and more recently has been the interim chair of the Heart of England NHS Trust.

Council leader Steve Eling, said: “I welcome Jacqui Smith’s appointment as chair of the trust and look forward to working with her as we launch a fresh approach for children’s social care services in Sandwell.

“We want to build on recent improvements with a board that will focus on providing a clear vision, be innovative and strive to deliver rapid and sustained improvements.

“She has a wealth of experience to help the trust address the challenges we face and, working with all our key partners, improve social care services to children in Sandwell.”

Councillor Simon Hackett, cabinet member for children’s services, said: “I have always said that if services are not good enough for my own children, they’re not good enough for other people’s children.

"I want every child in Sandwell to achieve their full potential and the new trust can help us do that.

“Jacqui can make sure our dedicated staff have the support and resources they need to help every child.”

Ms Smith will start her role later this month.