Government mandated commissioners, it seems, share at least one characteristic with London buses. Namely, they appear to come along in pairs.

Here in Birmingham, at the end of March, we recently welcomed the Labour Peer Lord Norman Warner and his advisory group as our post-Le Grand ‘challenge team’, mandated by DfE, and intended to add capacity, expertise and encouragement to our own efforts to turn around children’s safeguarding.

The city council is reassured that it now has the necessary mature agreement with Government about what we need to do and how we are to be supported in doing it. Of course, we still await the findings from a recent Ofsted inspection - but in the certain knowledge that we already have a course upon which to set sail and a noble compass that will keep us firmly pointing to true North.