A government commissioner is to review Buckinghamshire’s beleaguered children’s services, after they were once again rated ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted.

Central government is to appoint a commissioner to review Ofsted’s report and make recommendations to Buckinghamshire County Council (BCC) for improvement. The commissioner is due to start work on February 26, and scrutinise the council until late May.

But Bucks Labour group said it hoped the commissioner would recommend that children’s services be taken over by the government, in order to improve the standards of the struggling service.

The group says that BCC should now suspend its Early Help Review, under which a number of children’s centres, such as Iver Children’s Centre, are to be axed and replaced with a handful of centralised hubs.

Cllr Majid Hussain, for Bucks Labour, said: “BCC announced that ‘the Early Help Review is confirmed and can be implemented immediately’ – effectively ignoring the damning Ofsted report and steaming ahead with radical changes in the way children’s services are delivered, suggests a council leadership in denial.

“I and my colleagues believe that this decision shows complete disregard for Ofsted’s findings and must now be reversed.”

Cllr Majid said the plans to replace the 35 children’s centres with nine central hubs lacked clarity and that ‘the small print of the plans’ actually suggests they will be for BCC staff undergoing training and management meetings, rather than for children.

Cllr Majid said: “Until the commissioner has completed their review and delivered their recommendations, it would be irresponsible and wholly inappropriate for BCC to make any further changes.”

A BCC spokeswoman said: “We will continue with our plans to develop a new Early Help service that meets local need.

“The new service will be made up of teams who will work closely with children and families from nine community bases.

“They will bring together a range of council services.” to provide a much more coordinated offer, which will be targeted at those who are most in need of our help.

“By giving the right support, at the right time, we can prevent small problems from getting out of control and help families to better deal with their problems in the future.”