Middlesbrough Council will be allowed to keep control of its 'inadequate' children's services to allow further improvements to be made.
The move was recommended by the commissioner for children’s services, Peter Dwyer. He was appointed by the Government after an Ofsted inspection in November 2019 found the council's children's services were 'inadequate' in all four judgement areas.
His report states: 'It is recommended that the local authority and its partners are afforded the opportunity to further enhance their improvement activity to date.
'To be given the chance to create the conditions where over time we will increasingly see the improvements in practice which are needed.'
Middlesbrough mayor, Andy Preston, said: 'Retaining control of the service is the result we wanted, but we know how much work is still required. This is the first significant step on a long road of recovery for the council.
'The town’s children are our number one priority. We’ve got big ambitions for Middlesbrough and those ambitions are all about the future of our young people.'
