Leicester Mayor Sir Peter Soulsby has taken over control of children's and school's services in the city after axing the assistant mayor for children and young people and a senior officer in the aftermath of a damning Ofsted inspection.

A draft report issued last week by Ofsted inspectors found a botched overhaul of frontline social workers last summer led to an exodus of 30 staff.  This in turn resulted in 291 vulnerable children being overlooked and not placed with a social worker at the height of the crisis.

Elaine McHale, who was Leicester's interim director of children's services, has been removed from her post as interim director of adult social care, and assistant mayor Cllr Vi Dempster, has been stripped of her responsibility for children and young people and has left the authority's ruling executive with immediate effect.