POLICE and crime commissioner John Campion is being blamed for the shock failures in children's services - with his spell in power being called "a bloody disaster".

Liberal Democrat Councillor Fran Oborski, who is vice-chair of an influential children's scrutiny panel, says Mr Campion is to blame for Ofsted's brutal verdict.

Mr Campion had a 14-month stint as cabinet member for children and families at Worcestershire County Council, before standing down after being elected PCC last May.

Councillor Oborski, a former school improvement adviser who worked with vulnerable children, has accused him of handing current cabinet member Councillor Marc Bayliss - who has been in the job since last May - "a poisonous hot potato".

But Mr Campion says the whole council is to blame, and has admitted the Ofsted report is "damning" on everyone at County Hall.

"When Liz Eyre was the cabinet member she worked hard to get the service up to speed and get it to 'adequate (in 2012), then she took her eye off the ball," said Councillor Oborski.

"But John Campion was a complete bloody disaster.

"If David Cameron said 'jump' he'd have asked how high - during his time in the cabinet the service went backwards.

"I have to say Marc (Bayliss) is completely blameless in this, he's been handed a poisonous hot potato."

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She also hit out at the number of agency workers managing the social workers, saying the frontline staff would benefit from more in-house, permanent bosses.

One in four of the managers working in children's services currently come from agencies.

But the criticism has been described as "political opportunism" by Mr Campion, who remains a backbench councillor at County Hall until this May's elections.

"Let's be clear, I have read the report and it is damning, not just of the political leadership and the officer leadership, but the council as a whole," he said.

"In my time as the cabinet member I did all I could to highlight the failures I saw, I said it wasn't good enough and indeed the LGA (Local Government Association) peer review in 2015 was very clear that the pace of change wasn't good enough.

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"My very last act as cabinet member was to report to full council, in May last year, on the service.

"I tried to fix it and led the process in appointing the current officer leadership, I have enormous confidence in her.

"I also continued to find more money, I signed off a record £77 million spend this year and Marc (Bayliss) is adding £3.5 million to that.

"We don't need political opportunism and rather than Fran throwing mud around, perhaps those who are criticising should look at themselves."

Ofsted's scathing report, published yesterday, said children's services have "significantly deteriorated" since the last inspection in 2012, grading it 'inadequate' after finding evidence of "widespread and serious failures".

COUNCIL GIVES 'ASSISTANT DIRECTOR' SAFEGUARIDNG ROLE

AN 'assistant director' who has worked at seven different councils has been charged with helping oversee County Hall's stricken children's services, it has emerged.

Tina Russell, who has more than 30 years' experience and has worked in areas like Solihull and Shropshire, has been asked to perform a 'firefighter' style role to try and rectify the situation.

The position will see her report directly to corporate director Catherine Driscoll, who was hired last February to replace interim boss Simon White as the £139,000-a-year top officer.

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Mrs Russell, pictured above far left, said: "Social work is a very tough job, it's very challenging but the people here do it because they are very committed about the work they do.

"The issues we face are not unique to Worcestershire at all, they are happening across the country, but the challenge we have is that we've got to address a lot of things at once."

The children's services department has pointed to some stats suggesting improvements are being made, despite Ofsted's verdict.

In December 85 per cent of social worker assessments were done with the 45-day limit, compared to just 56 per cent last July.

And in the third quarter of 2015/16, 68 per cent of court proceedings for at risk children were complete within 26 weeks compared to 31 per cent in the first quarter.