Contract for legal services for the set up of Sandwell Children's Trust

The intervention policy on response to failure to deliver children's social care services is set out in Putting Children First, published July 2016. There is a presumption in cases of persistent or systemic failure that children's social care services will be removed from local authority control, for a period of time, in order to bring about sustainable improvement, unless there are compelling reasons not to do so. The report of the Commissioner for Children's Services for Sandwell concluded that the council did not have the capability or capacity to improve it's services. The Secretary of State for Education issued a statutory direction to Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council requiring the local authority to work with the Department's appointed Commissioner for Children's Services in Sandwell to establish a new, operationally-independent, not-for-profit Trust to deliver effective social care services for children and families. A memorandum of understanding was signed by both parties in February 2017. Legal support for the creation of the Trust has already been undertaken by an existing supplier.