Birmingham's Children's Services Review

An independent commisioner is to oversee Birminhgham Children's Social Services for the next year, reporting to the Government every 3 months.

It comes after childrens social services in the city have been rated as inadequate for 4 years and faced more than 20 investigations into the deaths of children like Keanu Williams. (pictured) A serious case review found significant opportunities were missed to prevent him being beaten to death by his mother Rebecca Shuttleworth who is now serving a life sentence.

The commisioner will be there to make sure that the correct senior staff are in place to improve the service and also that it has enough resources.

Councillor Brigid Jones is the cabinet member for Chidren and Family services at Birmingham City Council, she's told Heart the council is pleased they are still involved, but admits there are huge challenges:

''We're not getting as many children referred to us as we'd expect for an authority this size, we dont have as many children in child protection as you would expect and we dont have as many children in care as we would expect.''

''All across the system, the indicators show we have got children who are missing.''