The chief executive of Doncaster MBC has pledged to keep the authority's focus on improving the safeguarding of children in the wake of a government decision to strip it of its children's services.

Speaking to The MJ, Jo Miller said the report by Professor Julian Le Grand, which called for an independent, not-for-profit trust to take over children's services at the local authority, was ‘disappointing, but not surprising'. The report, which was commissioned by education secretary Michael Gove, made ‘some major conclusions, based on what could be regarded as scant evidence,' she added.