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Children's commissioner at 'failing' Northamptonshire council quits

BBC Malcolm NewsamBBC
Malcolm Newsam was brought to run Northamptonshire County Council children's service in 2018

A government-appointed commissioner of a cash-strapped council's children's services department has resigned.

The Department for Education (DfE) said Malcolm Newsam would be leaving his role at Northamptonshire County Council.

Mr Newsam took up the role in 2018 after an Ofsted report found people in its care were at "potential risk".

In July, inspectors said the authority was still "failing to keep children safe".

Two serious case reviews also found it failed to protect murdered children.

Dylan Tiffin-Brown, two, and Evelyn-Rose Muggleton, one, were victims of separate murders in Northamptonshire.

Raphael Kennedy, Dylan's father, and Ryan Coleman, the partner of Evelyn-Rose's mother, were both jailed for life.

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Northamptonshire County Council failed to protect Dylan Tiffin-Brown who was murdered by his father, a serious case review previously found

At the time of the reviews in June, Children's Commissioner for England Anne Longfield said the authority had a "dysfunctional safeguarding system".

Ofsted's lead inspector Pauline Higham said in her report in July there was a "range of significant weaknesses" in the county's children's services.

However, she added the department had made "progress" since Mr Newsam's appointment in November 2018.

The DfE said: "We are making good progress with the creation of a new children's services trust and are grateful to Malcolm Newsam for his role in transforming these services.

"We will be appointing a new commissioner, before Malcolm leaves, to finish this crucial work."

Getty Images Northamptonshire county councilGetty Images
The authority's children's services had been rated "inadequate" by Ofsted

But Labour opposition councillor Danielle Stone said Mr Newsam "didn't do much groundwork", reports the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

"He has given us an off-the-peg solution [of a children's services trust], whereas we needed more work," she added.

Fiona Baker, the councillor in charge of children's services at the Conservative-led authority, said he had "put in place a good transformation plan to improve our services to children".

"We have every confidence in our plans and work to see a step change in our performance," she added.

A date has not yet been given for Mr Newsam's departure.