Two top bosses leave failing children's services department at Sandwell Council

Director of children's services Matthew Sampson and director for children and families Sharon Moore have both stood down with immediate effect, bosses have confirmed.

Jim Leivers has been appointed to head the children's services department on an interim basis, with a new temporary head for children and families set to be appointed in the coming weeks.

Children's services at Sandwell has been rated inadequate twice in the past four years and is set to be taken over by an independent trust as a result of long-standing failings.

Jan Britton, chief executive of Sandwell Council, said: "Mr Jim Leivers has been appointed as interim director of children's services and a new director of children and families will be appointed in due course.

"This is due to previous senior managers moving on from these posts. It is anticipated that the new trust will be set up and operational in late summer 2017."

Mr Leivers left his job as chief executive of North East Lincolnshire Council in March 2004, following a damning report by auditors which criticised the council's management and finances.

Then in 2015 as Oxfordshire County Council's director for children, education and families, he apologised to 373 girls and boys who the authority had failed to identify as victims of sexual exploitation.

It followed the results of a serious case review into why it took Oxfordshire Council so long to respond to child sexual exploitation.

He also apologised on behalf of his department for not offering better to support to teenager Jayden Parkinson, who was murdered in December 2013.

Mr Sampson was brought in from Sheffield as children's services head in 2013 following a damning inspection report that included criticism over how domestic violence cases were handled. But he failed to bring about any improvements.

An Ofsted inspection in June 2015 again rated the service area as 'inadequate'.

In a report last month, inspectors said the 'pace of change' had been too slow and that support for children leaving care was still not good enough.

The department has a history of failure dating back to 2009, when an inquiry was launched and social workers suspended after another 'inadequate' Ofsted judgement.