Updated 1:59am 26 May 2012

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Paul Dale

Paul Dale

BOSSES from Birmingham’s failing children’s social services department were given a dressing down by a Government Minister and told: “Make immediate improvements, and no more excuses”.

The confrontation took place when two leading city councillors met Education Minister Tim Loughton to talk about an Ofsted report that branded care for children in the city at risk of physical and sexual abuse as inadequate and critically deficient.Read

Birmingham's Newtown Swimming Pool to re-open

NEWTOWN swimming baths in inner-city Birmingham will reopen on August 16 following the completion of a £170,000 repairs programme.Read

Labour accuses Birmingham City Council leader of being ‘in hiding’

The council leader has been on holiday in the West Indies for three weeks and did not return to face the flak over an inquiry which found that the seven-year-old starved to death by her mother and stepfather would still be alive today if social workers had performed their jobs properly.Read

Social services in Birmingham are continuing to fail children at risk children two years after death of Khyra Ishaq

The department was blasted as “inadequate” in two successive reports by education watchdog Ofsted and is under Government orders to improve.Read

Blunders of Birmingham social services and education officials are plain to see

The findings of the Serious Case Review will be instantly recognisable to anyone who has followed this country’s appalling record on tackling child abuse over many years.Read

Tragic Khyra Ishaq could have been saved

The findings of a Safeguarding Board investigation led by a senior NSPCC Inspector represent a damning condemnation of the council, health trusts, GPs and police who all failed to act over a two-year period despite several obvious signs of Khyra’s deteriorating state of health.Read

THE inquiry’s main recommendations from the Khyra Ishaq report:

Read

Birmingham Council wage war on benefit fraudsters

COUNCIL bosses in Birmingham have declared war on benefit fraudsters after uncovering £3.5 million of fiddled claims.Read

Birmingham City council workers have their say

A CLEAR majority of Birmingham City Council staff do not believe a controversial modernisation process will deliver improved services or make the local authority a better place to work.Read

Birmingham declared the safest big city in England

BIRMINGHAM is now the safest of all England’s major cities as crime continues to fall, a new study has shown.Read

Sixth of teachers on long-term sick leave

During the financial year 2009-10, a total of 2,584 people, out of the 17,000 employed in the city’s schools, were off work for longer than a month.Read

Birmingham City council boss speaks out on problems with social services

THE council boss leading efforts turn around Birmingham’s failing children’s social services today admitted that so far he had not done a good enough job.Read

Former Birmingham Lord Mayor Mike Wilkes slams banks

FORMER Birmingham Lord Mayor Mike Wilkes has launched an outspoken attack on banks, who he said were helping to “destroy” the city’s manufacturing heritage by refusing to lend money to firms on reasonable terms.Read

CHILDREN at the highest risk of sexual and physical abuse continue to be let down by Birmingham City Council’s failing social services, a highly-critical government report has concluded.

Ofsted inspectors have carried out a new inspection and branded social workers and management inadequate and found “significant weaknesses” in child protection arrangements.Read

DEPUTY Birmingham council leader Paul Tilsley has admitted flying into a rage when he phoned the city’s new call centre and was kept waiting.

Coun Tilsley decided to pretend to be an ordinary member of the public attempting to make an inquiry about council services.Read

At risk Birmingham children are being let down says report

Ofsted inspectors have carried out a new inspection and branded social workers and management inadequate and found “significant weaknesses” in child protection arrangements.Read

ALARM bells began to ring for Birmingham City Council in December 2008 when Ofsted inspectors declared that services for vulnerable children were inadequate and in need of sharp improvement.

Nineteen months later, the watchdog body has detected little in the way of improvement and made another must-do-better plea.Read

Birmingham City Council boss' fury at long phone call

Coun Tilsley decided to pretend to be an ordinary member of the public attempting to make an inquiry about council services.Read

Birmingham's Alexander Stadium to undergo £900,000 refit ahead of Olympics

BIRMINGHAM’S Alexander Stadium is to undergo a £900,000 refit to improve facilities for visiting American and Jamaican Olympic athletes.Read

Birmingham City Council claims to be bucking unemployment trend

Most of the positions are in the housing directorate, where cabinet member John Lines is driving forward a scheme to take on and train skilled craftsmen including plumbers, builders, electricians and carpenters.Read

Author Profile

Paul Dale has been writing about local government in the West Midlands for more than 20 years. The Post's public affairs editor, he is a previous political editor of the Coventry Evening Telegraph and Local Government Correspondent of the Oxford Mail.